The World Ends With You, Too
by hintcoin
Summary: Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud “Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I’d like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there’s this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."
1. Mistaken Identities

**The World Ends With You, Too**

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**Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud "Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there's this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."

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**Amaya's Note:**

Yay! First chapter! The KH side of the story starts with the letter in the second game. And the TWEWY side starts after the prologue _And So It Begins_. Obviously, if you're reading this, you know what Kingdom Hearts and The World Ends With You is, but just in case, TWEWY is developed by the KH and Jupiter team. And Tetsuya Nomura is only the character designer (again).

HELP! I _think_ my OC Ashley is Mary Sue-ish. I'm putting more flaws in her this time around. Hopefully…

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**//mistaken identities\\**

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**"But do we have a ride?" Kairi asked. She was new to this world traveling business and surely wasn't anywhere near to being a pro at it either. Sora seemed dumbfounded as well. After sealing the door to Kingdom Hearts, King Mickey, Donald and Goofy stayed at his house for only a day, then left with Highwind after that. Riku was a bit stuck as well. He belonged to the Realm of Light now, and Dark Corridors were a thing of the past. The brunette read over the entirety of the letter from King Mickey again.

_Dear Sora, Kairi and Riku,_

_On behalf of those at Disney Castle and all the worlds, I would like to thank you. You three must obviously know what you've done for the sake of all of us, so I will not reiterate it. But you must remember as the Keyblade Master of Light _(Sora stood proudly at that part)_ the Princess of Heart _(Kairi smiled brighter) _and the Wielder of Darkness. As you three are our heroes, you three must also finish the job. Yes, you defeated Xehanort and vanquished Xemnas, however a threat remains. As long as darkness lingers in a single soul, the Heartless will remain. As there is Heartless, there are the Nobodies. A new group of Nobodies have formulated. Rest assured, we know positively they do not thirst for Kingdom Hearts, but we are yet to find out what they are after. They seem to not have taken after the Organization with the acronyms of names, but they simply go by codes. They are an enigma to us…a mystery yet to be solved. What we shall call them? Something yet to be deciphered…the Decoders…fitting enough, right?_

_I regret to be the one writing to you about this, but the worlds are still vulnerable to the Decoders' danger. One rather large world, Earth, to be precise, has reached its downfall. Now Sora, I can just imagine your face to be the one that gets annoyed as you read that I am giving you a mini-world-knowledge lesson. Earth is divided into seven continents, one being Asia. Asia is then divided into many countries. Japan is an island country, just like Destiny Islands. But Japan is divided into forty-seven administrative divisions, one of those being its capital of Tokyo. In the shopping district of Tokyo, called Shibuya, lived a boy named Neku Sakuraba._

_Sora, I address this to you: Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, because they come from Shibuya, which was lost in the havoc. Sora, find Sakuraba and take special care of him. _

_I don't know the reason as to why yet, but his ties to the Decoders run deep._

The trio still stood with screwed faces. Sora traced over the King's seal until he snapped his fingers. Kairi and Riku abruptly turned their heads and Sora was scratching the back of his head. "H-hey guys, forgot to read to you: '_Donald and Goofy will pick you up.'_"

They could've sworn he melted on the spot. Kairi was certainly mad, but after knowing Sora for so long, she held it in. Soon enough, she snapped her fingers as well. "If Donald and Goofy are coming, we have to throw them a welcoming party! Oh…I need decorations…preparations…food! (I know that didn't rhyme, oh well)" Then she slumped on her way to her house. "It's only going to be just the five of us, huh?"

Riku nodded. "Stupid world order, isn't it?" Simultaneously, his two friends agreed. But Kairi decided to fulfill her plan anyways. Without the pathways, gummi travel was certainly tiring. Why welcome two of the greatest partners ever with just a hug?

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**//~*~\\**

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**"Ahyuck, Sora, you've gotten bigger since last time we saw ya!" Goofy hugged Sora tightly, while Donald regretted driving the ship. They both equally missed the Keyblade master, after spending two years with him.

He barely managed to wrestle off his friend. "I missed you, too, Goofy, but it's only been a week!"

"One week too long!" Donald answered. Everyone took their seats in the vessel and the duck started the engine. Kairi was the only one to be taken back by the celestial view. She'd only been on a gummi ship twice, both in the first year. All the other times she traveled between the worlds, she was being kidnapped and used a Dark Corridor. But either way, she was used to be astounded like this. If you were a fifteen-year-old girl necessary for inter-galactic destruction, you get used to a lot of things. Like talking dog-men and a giant duck. She still was amazed, though, that every single little star out there wasn't a celestial body of hot gases that radiates energy derived from thermonuclear reactions in the interior like she was taught, but was a world inhabited by people, very much like her little star.

They passed millions of stars, too many for her. Eventually, Kairi lost count around 4,345,993,888. They flew past worlds that seemed to be normal, and then they passed the opposite. Although no one was close enough to see, a few worlds were already overrun by Heartless. The group remained quiet. They could've done something. They were the _solution_ to it all. Wait…oh, no they weren't! This Neku Sakuraba. Sora had learned that his name meant Sky, which was fitting, because, like the Light and the Sky, his legacy was endless. Kairi was the Water, calm as always and Riku the earth, sturdy and unflinching. What would he learn from Neku's name? "Hey, Kairi?"

"Hm? Yeah, Sora?" The eyes in the vessel turned to him, because he was the first to talk in a long while. He could've sworn some of those faces were red.

"World studies your thing, right?" She nodded. "Then what does _Neku Sakuraba_ mean?"

"You want me to translate his name? Okay, but…that's a little weird." Kairi pulled out a notepad, one that was usually reserved for when Naminé wanted to draw, and rested the tip of the pencil on it. She was talking to her Nobody right now. He did that, too, sometimes. And that sometime was now.

_**You're really interested in Sakuraba, aren't you?**_

_Don't tell me you're not._

_**Fine. I am, but mostly because you are.**_

Sora scowled at Roxas. It _was_ his own fault Roxas couldn't feel his own emotions half the time.

_**Hey, don't sweat it. There's still that one part that's all me.**_

The regret and sorrow building up in Sora's stomach dissolved as Roxas tried to take the emotions for him. He saw Kairi furiously writing something on the notepad and mouthing some words. She still did that while she talked to Naminé. Then, she smiled and said thank you. Riku, Donald and Goofy didn't react. They knew very well what was going on. Then the Princess turned to Sora. "I-I don't really know what to make of it, but here's the meaning."

Ne-Ku Saku-Raba (Kanji) literal translate: sound, manipulation, cherry and garden

He also saw little incoherent doodles, most of them a purple blob with a dab of blue and yellow. Sora tossed the notepad to Riku, who was waiting patiently to see it. There was also a little bit of tension in the air, something he couldn't explain. "S-so, what do you think Traverse Town looks like now?"

"Gawrsh, I hope it's still the same." Goofy said. He had ludicrous smile as he navigated through the empty space. "Hey, I think that's it!" Goofy's chair screeched as it slid back quickly. He was standing and pointing to an all-too-familiar world. There was the accessory shop, and yup, the third district and…he could still see the Dalmatians' house! Donald had a hard time landing when Goofy was shaking his shoulder excitedly. Kairi clapped her hands together with Sora's laughing. But Riku…Riku was…somewhere. He was happy, you could see the faintest of smiles on his face, but his eyes were empty as he sat in his chair, gazing out into the dark void. Then suddenly, he jerked his head out of the trance and celebrated with everyone else. Sora knew something was up, but decided he'll ask later.

At arriving in the first district, they were welcomed by many faces, all of them new and different. A couple passed them and their expressions were a sullen red. Looking further, some were crying. But as they walked into the area, some of the people lit up. Some of them looked as if they were ready to get down on their knees and bow down to them! Donald looked cautiously to Goofy. "Uhh, are you sure this is the right place?"

"Uhyuck! See! It even says Traverse Town!" The group turned to the bright neon sign and yes it did say Traverse Town. "So what now?"

"Well, obviously, we know the place still looks the same." Riku said. He seemed to be going somewhere useful with that. "Why don't we split up and check out the news?" Kairi's face immediately lit up as she hooked arms with Sora. "Uh, not you two. Kairi wouldn't get anything done with you Sora."

Sora sighed in relief when Kairi puffed her cheeks at Riku. They argued for a while, as Sora explained to Donald and Goofy why he was happy Kairi wasn't tagging along. "She's great and all, but after spending like what, two years with mostly guys, it's a bit weird for me to start forging relationships with girls." He smiled, remembering how awkward it was for him to spend those little bits of time with Ariel and Mulan. But still, Mulan was able to fend for herself (unlike a large number of females he's met) and he was singing half the time with the princess of Atlantica.

And it was decided. After an unnecessary amount of boisterous yelling, Sora would take care of the First District, Donald and Goofy would the Second District buildings along with Riku and Kairi would search the Third District. "I still don't get why _I_ have to do this. There's no one here!"

_**Then you must have the easiest job, Kairi.**_

She scowled at her Nobody. But in a way, Naminé _was_ right. Kairi felt useless though; the Third District was just an empty square!

_**I suppose we're done then. Go report back.**_

"Hehe, smart thinking." She excused her brandished Keyblade, Flowering Garden, which had shown up on its own. It quickly returned though, reasons as to why remained unknown. There was a loud shriek coming from just around the corner. Kairi took her defensive pose and ran to the spot. But she started laughing when she saw who was yelling. Sora was standing, scratching his head, although he was surrounded by Heartless. He looked…odd. He was still wearing his obnoxiously large shoes, but they were a purplish tint. He still had his shorts, but they were a different color. Actually, his overall outfit was different! One more thing…

His _collar!_

It was large…too large…

A shadow jumped Sora's way but instead of pulling out Kingdom Key, he simply kicked it away. "What the heck? My psyches don't work!"

"Psyches?" Kairi laughed again. She jumped to Sora's side, clearing out a few of the Heartless along the way. "What are you talking about? Use the Keyblade, Sora!"

"I'm sorry, but…what are _you_ talking about? I use _pins,_ not this key you're telling me."

"Sora!" Kairi screeched, but she gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. This boy was around her age, but his wore headphones, and his hair was a bright orange. "You're not Sora!"

"Sure as heck I'm not. My name's Ne—"

"WATCH IT!" Kairi slashed at an oncoming Neoshadow. Introductions would have to wait; she'd never be able to find out this boy's name if they couldn't survive the Heartless. She flitted around the enemies, fading away from their attacks, dashing behind them and using their backs as a weakness. It was affective, but it looked like she was dancing more than fighting.

_Wow, a fighting ballerina._

"Hey!" Kairi called. A pathway had been cleared of Heartless, but the dark creatures were quickly filling it back in. The boy shook his head and listened to her. "Let's go, go, go!"

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**//~*~\\**

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**They arrived at the Accessory Shop in about five minutes. It went something like the boy would follow Kairi as she swirled around him, swatting off the Heartless. But actually entering the shop, they duo was only more surprised. There was Sora and Riku, sitting and talking to two girls. One was a brunette, like Sora, but it was straightened and it went just past her ears. She held a pig…wait no, a cat tightly to herself. The other girl, she was wearing the same thing as the other: a uniform that had a St. Ursula emblem. It was a maroon with a black plaid skirt. No…if there was such thing as coincidence…then this was surely one.

The second girl…

Sora stood up. "Wait…so Kairi has two Nobodies now?" His eyes twitched to the boy next to Kairi, the original. "WAIT! _I_ have two Nobodies now?" The heads in the room spun around, comparing the new faces. "No, no, no, wait…there's Kairi, Naminé, who were you again?"

She stood up as well. Kairi took note to ask her how she got her hair to flip up like that later. "My name's Eri Sato and that's my friend Shiki Misaki. We were just walking to St. Ursula's when we woke up here!"

"Ohh, if only Joshua were here." The girl named Shiki said. Obviously, the boy they called Joshua was a lot of help to them before. Then, with the cat (wait, no, was that a pig, maybe?) in hands, she turned to the boy next to Kairi. "Neku, do you know what's going on?"

"Obviously, I don't." He said. Kairi, Sora and Riku exchanged glances. Was he…really? "I was just walking around when some Noise appeared. I tried using my pins but the psyches didn't work."

"Neku, am I wrong?" Riku said. This was the first time he'd said anything the entire time they met Shiki and Eri. The strict look in his eyes gave everyone a chill, even his two best friends.

"Y-yeah," Neku stuttered. "Neku Sakuraba."

"Neku…" He chuckled a bit here. "We need to talk."

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**chapter one**

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****.:mistaken identities:.**

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****//closed\\**

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**Ehh?? I actually finished the first chapter? Wow…just wow. I'm sorry if the last section was really choppy or sloppy. There's a heat wave where I live and I was going to take a shower. But I wanted to finish this before I went in, 'cause if I didn't, I'd forget it all. And besides, there were mosquitoes near my desktop and I hate all bugs that are blood sucking and stringy (yes, that includes you Edward Cullen)

Lemme explain. Eri's last name, Sato, isn't confirmed. I don't think she actually has a last name mentioned in the game, right? Shiki and Eri bumped into Sora and Riku while Kairi was helping Neku. They were talking about the stuff that just happened when Kairi came in, and when she did, Sora kinda forgot all they talked about because he though Eri was Kairi's second Nobody…although that was impossible. I think. And yes, Riku is a quiet enigma in here.

And one more yes, I don't like Kairi. So I guess she's going to go evil here. And yes, that's a _really_ big part in the story.

NO! One more yes. Joshua and my OC Composer, Ashley Secaria, will be in the stories later on. Just not right now. And that sucks for me because I just LOVE Joshii-kun.

So…review? Criticism is highly recommended!

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**.:amaya out:.**


	2. Responsibilities

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The World Ends With You, Too**

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Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud "Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there's this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."

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Amaya's Note:**

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Fufufufu, I gots chapter two! Yay! Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed because it's greatly appreciated! And remember in the last chapter how I said I'd try to incarcerate my need to put Joshii-kun in the story without the fangirl impulses, I lied. He's in this chapter…

_Ehh,_ 'nuff said.

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.:Disclaimer**:.  
I also forgot to do this in the first chapter. All characters are owned by Square Enix and Jupiter. Only Ashley and this plot is owned by me. 'Cause you know if I did own TWEWY and/or KH, there would be strongly implied yaoi (please don't let that change your mind about the story!)

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//responsibilities\\**

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"Look, I don't care what you say about your freakin' key stick whatever or riding on some gummy bears, I'm staying here in Traverse Town!" Neku yelled back. The room had subconsciously divided into two halves: one side being the recipients of Shibuya and the other being the Keybearers. Kairi was going to say something, but Riku shushed her. Why force something onto him…especially if he didn't want to?

Sora was going to let Neku think. Just _think._ Letting Orangeylocks decide for himself was an entirely different affair.

Neku's glare was intended for Riku, who _did_ force the speech onto him, but it deeply disturbed Sora. Shiki, Neku's close friend-who-happens-to-be-a-girl, noticed the tension in the air and winced. These three strangers just walked into the town and suddenly they're taking Neku away. But the concept they imposed seemed to explain the reason they ended up in Traverse Town. Maybe asking them to reiterate what they were trying to say would help. "Riku, right?"

"Yeah, Shiki?" He turned to her, and the fierce look in his eyes almost made her scream.

"Can you explain…it all again, please?"

"I could, but Sora can do it better." Riku motioned to his brunette friend, who was staring intently at Neku, who was freaking out a bit because of that.

"Uh, y-yeah, I like sea salt ice cream." He said passively without removing his gaze at Neku.

"Hey, Keyboy, what's up? Answer the question." Neku sternly asked (or rather demanded.)

"Umm, nothing." Sora shook his head out of any other irrelevant trances and finally explained. "The world you lived on, Earth, was most likely overrun by Heartless, those creatures you saw earlier, Neku. They are creatures whose hearts were stolen and blindly thirst for more. The stronger the heart, the stronger the Heartless seek it out. Earth was really big, and so its world heart must've been humungous. The Heartless eventually reached the world heart, consumed it and Earth fell apart into darkness."

"W-what happens to the people on that world?" Eri timidly asked.

Sora was quiet for a moment. No one had been able to find his parents after he came home. They could've been…he didn't want to admit it. "Some of them make it here, to Traverse Town." And he left it there.

"What about the people who…don't?" The designer pressed.

Sora didn't answer and Kairi could see that it was a sensitive topic for her friend. She hadn't seen her parents either, only her grandmother. And who knew where she was now? "They…don't make it to Traverse Town. I think that's enough said." Realization spread on Neku, Shiki and Eri's faces. Those who didn't make it to Traverse Town most likely died.

"Is it possible that people don't make it to Traverse Town but they can still survive?"

"Yes." Riku calmly answered. Everyone turned to him again, and he was sitting with his eyes tightly shut. "I made it to Radiant Garden."

"But c'mon, Riku! Brighten up! We made it back together!" Sora said. Was it the right time to ask Riku what was wrong? "Riku…you've been acting really strangely ever since we got onto the gummi ship."

"Sora, I think you need to finish explaining to Neku and his friends."

He took the hint that he wouldn't be getting any answers out of the silver haired friend. Sora sighed in defeat and hardened his face to tell them the honest truth. "About two years ago, I defeated a Heartless of a decoy Ansem who was going to control the ultimate heart, Kingdom Hearts. His Nobody, Xemnas, then tried to become whole again by taking the hearts there a year later. I…there was a group of other Nobodies Xemnas lead, Organization XIII. Now…the work might _not_ be done."

"Let me get this straight," Neku said, trying to wipe off any confusion on his face. Kairi looked at his calm façade and had to admit, looking at Neku was scary. Seeing Sora's bright and cheery eyes on a face that was scarred emotionally just…didn't seem right. Neku noticed this too, and continued faster than necessary. "Xemnas is fake Ansem's Nobody, right? What was this Organization for?"

"They all came together for a come reason." Sora told him. He froze though, because those weren't his words. Roxas was talking, not him. "We wanted to become whole again. Have a heart beating in our chests, be able to care for someone, and actually feel it. We could _act_ as if we were human, but inside, that only fed out need to actually be able to do what you guys can."

"_We?_" Shiki questioned.

Sora sighed again, giving into the sensation of Roxas taking control. A bright blue radiance shown over his body and Roxas' visible features appeared. He liked doing this; although it was Sora's, Roxas could feel a beating heart, as if it were his own. But the Somebody didn't enjoy getting pushed to the back of his own mind, so Roxas would have to be quick. "Not Sora, me, Roxas."

Neku's eyes bulged to what may have seemed a good foot out of his head. "Who—what happened to Sora?"

"I'm Roxas, Sora's Nobody. He's in his head…where I usually am." Roxas informed them. Neku crossed his arms, and the Nobody knew exactly what he was thinking. "Sora, Riku or Kairi won't tell you this, but Sora was turned into a Heartless in Radiant Garden, back when is was still Hollow Bastion. He was able to turn back to the light, but when that happened, I was created."

Shiki gawked. Roxas laughed a bit at that, but also because of the glares he received from Riku and Kairi. Riku really didn't like the Nobody all that much. I mean, Roxas was the last component to bring Sora back, but he made it difficult to do so. And Kairi? She'd barely met the dude. But Shiki was able to put two and two together. "Wait, so you're only like what, two years old?"

"Pretty much. My first year was with the Organization, and I've already spent my second with Sora." Roxas could feel Sora tugging impatiently. And he smirked, knowing he was probably leaving Neku and his friends in more questions than answers. "I have to make this swift, so talk to you later?"

They didn't have time to respond when Roxas started to fade back to Sora's familiar face. He exhaled deeply, jerking his limbs around to get the feeling in them again. Riku sat solemnly, as Kairi looked ready to tackle the Keyblader. "Kinda like the saying two heads are better than one."

"Talking about two heads," The Princess of Light started. "Where's Donald and Goofy?"

"Ahyuck! Right here!" The two sidekicks crashed through the door with a loud amount of unnecessary commotion. They received a defiant stare from the shop owner, but he softened up when he recognized the faces now sitting in his lounge. Everywhere they went they got the same reaction. It was as if Donald or Goofy were continuously thinking _why don't we go crash a wedding? They'll forgive us anyways, 'cause heck, we saved them!_ Sora doubted it, but wouldn't be surprised if he caught wind of his friends doing so. Goofy stood panting next to Neku, who was freaking out, again.

And Donald ran up to Neku, flailing his wings helplessly. "What did you do to your clothes Sora?"

Neku grumbled, twisting the end of one of his hair spikes. "Not. Sora." He said bluntly.

Sora laughed, raising his hand to signal his presence. "Over here guys. That's Neku Sakuraba, the one with the cat is Shiki Misaki and the last one is Eri Sato." The girls nodded their heads respectively, but Neku was still grumbling incoherent words. "Neku, Shiki, Eri, meet Donald and Goofy."

"Wait, you're Neku?" Goofy questioned, suddenly catching his breath. "Gawrsh, too bad we let 'em leave, Donald. Neku, I think we met a guy lookin' for you."

Neku cocked an eyebrow. "Me? Who?"

"What was it? It was um, something his mother and father liked to call him. Yuki…no, uh, Yoshi?" Goofy brainstormed to himself. "Oh! Yoshiya! And he was with a girl who was carrying around a cup of coffee."

"J-Joshua's here? With Ashley?" Neku turned to Shiki and Eri, whose faces were equally, if not more than, astounded. He knew all too well how to describe the Composers. Only Joshua would lie about having a mother and father, despite him outliving them by a few hundred years. And Ashley had been ranting about trying new coffee ever since their first encounter. "How'd we miss them in the Shibuya headcount?"

"Oh, and they said they're leaving soon to look for ya!" Donald quacked.

Sora smacked the two of them on the backs of their heads. "Then why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I was _getting_ there!" Donald and Sora were caught in their own bicker as Goofy walked over to Neku.

"Joshua and Ashley weren't joking around at all. They really needed to find ya Neku. Something…something in the way they spoke just set me…off edge." Goofy nudged Sora, and instantly, the brunette noticed the uneasiness on his face. Goofy never was…_not_ goofy unless it was serious. "Sora, we need to help 'em get to Neku."

He looked like he was ready to plead and beg on all fours if he had to. Sora wouldn't, no, Sora _couldn't_ say no. Besides, he was under an obligation. He saved the worlds, but had to clean up the mess left afterwards. And there was suddenly this new threat, the Decoders. If they weren't striving for Kingdom Hearts, then exactly what was their goal? And Neku…what did he have in all of this? The king knew something and obviously, it wasn't much. Neku was joking with Shiki, Eri, Donald, Goofy, Riku and Kairi, but his veneer covered something deep.

"Neku?"

"Hm?" He turned, a bright smile still plastered on his face from a previous tale.

"Are you ready to find Joshua?"

**

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//~*~\\**

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Explain that again?_

_Sigh…it's not _that_ complicated, is it?_

_I'm new to this. Sue me for not knowing._

_It's the Director's Cut. You know, when someone dies and goes into the Reapers' Game, win, then come back to life, it's a little weird. I mean, they've been dead for a week. Why die and then start walking around again in seven days? The people who were close to the person that died will start wondering why that happened, and sooner or later, they're going to find out about the Game. If they've been through it before, it's okay. But sometimes there are a few people who _haven't_ died that discover the Game. Kinda like you saying you were able to see the Game while you were alive._

_And this Director?_

_Find Neku, then I can tell you._

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//~*~\\**

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"First key-sticks…"

"Key_blade…_"

"Now intergalactic travel on gummy bears…"

"Gummi _ship…_"

Neku continued to list all the things he would never get used to. And as he went, Riku corrected him. But hey, you can't blame him; why don't you live in your hometown for the first fifteen years of your life then suddenly meet a giant key holding boy whose hair defies all gravity, _then_ tell me what you think. When the Traverse Town World Gates were opened, Neku nearly stumbled at the sight. The dark abyss was studded with trillions, if not billions, of twinkling stars. The forced just seemed to make him lurch forward, Shiki and Eri, too.

After hearing Goofy's pleads and Sora's invitation, Neku finally gave in. He would go with the Keybladers, but only to look for Joshua. The edginess Goofy mentioned was clearly reflected in his face. But wait…Neku finally knew Joshua and Ashley were safe, but what about Beat and Rhyme! He whipped his head to Shiki. "Did you see Beat or Rhyme anywhere?"

Comprehension dawned on her face. "Did you, Eri!"

"I—I don't think so…" She said, shaking her head and suddenly searching through the various crowds in Traverse Town. When Earth had fallen, its entire people had been dumped in various places. The majority was clearly here in this makeshift world, caught between the Dark Corridors, and it was easy to get lost in the multitude. But still, places like the Second District remained lightly decorated with people, and the Third was scarcely. "Think they're okay?"

"Hope so…"

Sora turned to the gate where a girl was walking through. Shiki sighed in relief and Eri tackled her. Neku's eyes were furrowed together as he glared at her. And Sora couldn't help but feel something weird when she arrived. It was…unimaginable, unspeakable…unusual. It wasn't the fuzzy sensation he got with Kairi, but at the same time, he could say it _was. _She was tall, almost Shiki and Eri's height, wore blue clothes and a matching hat that concealed slick black hair. They knew who she was, and that was enough to know she wasn't dangerous. She turned to Sora, dark brown eyes nearly scaring the crap out of the cobalt ones. "You're Sora, right?"

"Yeah. You are?" He answered slowly.

She sighed in relief. "That's good. My name's Ashley Secaria, Composer of the great San Fran. Sora, when did you meet Neku?"

This time, the proxy talked. "Just a few hours ago, Ashley. Where's Joshua?"

Ashley twitched a bit and held the side of her head. "He's at the Castle. I would've gone with him but I got…uh, dizzy during the flight. So I came here instead, looking for Neku while he stayed to talk to the Queen."

Neku, Shiki and Eri all tilted their heads to the talk of royalty, but Sora, Kairi and Riku knew exactly what Ashley was talking about. "No King?" Riku asked.

"Out looking for the Decoders. Which brings me to this, Neku…" Ashley dug into her pocket and tossed Neku a piece of paper. "You need to read that."

"What is it?"

"Your…responsibilities."

**

* * *

chapter two**

**

* * *

.:responsibilities:. **

**

* * *

//closed\\**

* * *

Wow…I feel accomplished. I finished chapter two and my novel (Traces of the Phones) on the same day. While watching Camp Rock! And eating dinner! And beating Megumi! At different times! Whoo! This chapter was supposed to end _way _differently, with Joshua _actually_ showing up…but hey, I finally overcame my RJFD. Which is Rabid Joshua Fangirl Disorder. There's also Type 1 RRFD, which is Rabid Riku Fangirl Disorder and Type 2 RRFD, Rabid Roxas Fangirl Disorder! And I'm suffering from all three!

Ohhh, pity I'm sick like this…tee-hee~

**

* * *

.:amaya out:.

* * *

**


	3. Of Directors and the Dead

**

* * *

The World Ends With You, Too**

* * *

Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud "Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there's this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."

**

* * *

Amaya's Note:**

* * *

Chapter three. Oh gosh, someone hacked my computer and put in a security Internet password. So now, updates might be a tad bit slower…hopefully not. Let me explain the genres. Yeah, adventure….whoo you got that part down. But the other one is tragedy and stuff like that because towards the ends of the story, everyone's going to be going over their backgrounds. Some are going to be harsh, while the other's not so much, but I'm going to try and make it sad. And no, the title is not to poke fun at the word 'Too' as if it were 'Two' as in a sequel. When Sora meets a certain someone, you'll find out.

**

* * *

//of directors and the dead\\**

* * *

"Responsibilities, huh?" Neku cocked an eyebrow and carefully unfolded the slowly yellowing paper. It reeked of ancientness, and that only served the fact that everyone wanted to know what was inside. "Who wrote it?"

"The King." Ashley answered bluntly. Sora noticed that every time a person was talking to her about the Castle or its recipients, she shivered, but when Eri or Shiki drifted off of the subject, she was fine. And, just like he distinguished with Neku, Ashley's eyes held a dark past. Dark brown and black swelled in her indifferent eyes, and the Keyblader couldn't help but recoil a bit from the sight.

"King?" Neku turned to her again. "There isn't a kingdom around here."

The Composer laughed, and Sora barely understood why. "Oh Neku, there isn't a kingdom around here because you're _in_ one! King Mickey and Queen Minnie live in Disney Castle, where Donald and Goofy are their court magicians and royal guard, respectively." She was clutching her hands tightly, and her knuckles were showing a bone white.

"Ashley?" Sora called.

"Yeah?" She released her grip, and she instantly observed that Sora knew something was up.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, just fine. Anyways, Neku, I _need _you to read the letter. Joshua doesn't know what's inside yet, and I don't, either." Ashley said. She looked intently into Neku's eyes, and he looked down to the document.

_Dear Neku Sakuraba,_

_You may not know me, and I very well may not know you, so let me do introductions. My name is Mickey, King of the Disney Castle. Sora might not have told you this yet, but I was lost in the Realm of Darkness with his friend Riku. Reasons as to why must remain confidential, but only for now. If I'm correct, your friend…a mister Sanae Hanekoma…had told you to trust your partner. Take a look to the people around you right now. They're not your partners, and maybe only half are your friends at present, but you will be traveling with them for a long time. But it was about time I appeased Ashley's uneasiness. She frankly told you that you were the Director while Shibuya was still here. Being the Director is…how do I put it…necessary for the UG. _

_With Shibuya fallen into darkness, you very well know that the UG is gone with it. _

_But threats of unbalance remains. With Shibuya's downfall, some people have found out about the Reaper's Game. The Game's existence, as well as those who have came back to life, will be erased if word of the Game is released. Only those who have fairly died on their own are allowed to know about the Game. That is the universal rule. Now, I hope I have given you an adequate explanation to the basics. Earlier, Ashley told you that you will erase the minds of those who aren't supposed to know about the Game…but I suppose you don't know that you only need to erase what they know about the Game. The only setback is that you need to erase _everything_ in their mind if it may lead to the Game. Yes, that means that if a son's mother went through the Reaper's Game and was Resurrected, you may have to erase his mind, if he knows about the Game. And yes, that may lead to you erasing all his memories of his mother._

_Neku, it is a difficult job, but your life, as well many of those around you, are at stake._

_There's many more I cannot go into right now, but for all of your questions about the Director can be answered by Ashley._

_And relax, your Bito friends awakened in my garden the other day. They're safe with me._

Neku sighed in relief. If this king were as kingly as he sounded, then no doubt Sora would go there. He felt a daunting awe by staring into the night sky of Traverse Town. It was difficult to grasp the idea that every single star out there was a world and that his star was one of the millions twinkling out right now. And Sora smiled when he saw Neku's deep intellectual moment because he had that _same_ reaction to this. The proxy turned to Ashley, and as instructed, inquired about the Director. "Are we making a movie?"

Ashley turned her head from her conversation with Eri and Shiki. "Interested in the Director now, hm? Neku, let me emphasize the fact that if you can't do your job, not only will many disappear, but their respective areas will fall into chaos as well." She took a deep breath, getting ready for the next part. "Now, the Director exists for the UG's protection, which would consequently protect all other zones as well. To actually do it, though, is…umm, when you're walking around, you might feel an unusual spike in Inspiration. It's only supposed to come when a Player is Imprinting on the RG, but unnecessary knowledge can do the same. You'll be able to tell the difference between the good type and the bad. The next thing you do is simple, erase what you need to erase. You'll know what they're thinking because you'll have a pin similar to the Player Pin."

"You're talking all about the UG when there isn't one to keep safe." Neku blurted.

"Hmph, you're right, Neku, but then again, you're wrong. Earth only resides in the darkness now. It's still there, but just barely. We aren't able to live on it anymore, though. Let me tell you, knowledge is good, but it can be dangerous. What you saw around you in Shibuya was the Director's Cut. How you change the person's mind affects the community. So Neku, not only do you have a hard job, it's important."

"I-I guess I get it…" He said. Neku looked around to Sora and his friends and their faces were at the same, if not more or less, confusion as his. "Do you have like,_ some _sort of comparison."

"Not sure if I should be saying this, but you can say it's like using Naminé's power for the UG." Ashley squeaked.

Kairi grabbed her head as she reached an inner vertigo. _Naminé! Are you okay?_

_**Y-yes, but something about this Composer just…isn't right.**_

_Do you know what it is?_

_**I could only wish I did.**_

_Uhh, I think Ashley wants to talk to you. _Kairi submitted to the same consciousness Sora did not so long ago. Red turned to blond and pink turned to white. An unconscious mouth turned to a calm smile, and Naminé's notebook was visibly clutched in her hands. Eri and Shiki's mouths gaped open in an 'O' but Neku didn't do anything. He was too shocked to do so. "Did you want to talk, Ashley?" Naminé's tranquil voice startled the ones from Shibuya.

"Not me, Naminé," The Composer answered. She knew what she was doing. "It seemed as though _you_ wanted to talk."

Naminé smiled and tilted her head to the side. "So you've noticed. Exactly _how_ do you know about me?"

Both girls were facing lightheadedness right now. Something about them just made the pair…incompatible. Ashley braced the little sanity she had left in her body to talk. "I'm a Composer. When word goes round in your city, you hear it. Besides, I've been _far_ longer than you have. There's things I've seen, things I've heard, things I've _done_ that you don't want to know."

"Hmm, I guess that'll be ample enough for now. Farewell." With a swift wave of her hand, Naminé glowed back into Kairi, who did a similar nervous check as Sora, too. But there was something bugging the Somebody as well. "Neku?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you explain the Reaper's Game?"

They glanced amongst each other. Neku, Shiki and Ashley knew what it was because they'd been through it themselves, but Eri was new to this as the Keybladers were. If this Director was to do what he was supposed to, then Eri could be his first victim. They'd have to be careful about what they said. "Death is uhh, sort of a special occasion in Shibuya." Neku started. "It's…treated another way than what you think. Kind of like another game for survival."

Ashley stifled a snicker at this. He did a really good job at telling Kairi what she needed to know, at least for now, without telling Eri too much. And besides, in Shibuya, death _really _was a Game. "Well, we should start going now. Joshua's probably waiting for me to come back with you guys at the Castle."

The group started walking out. It wasn't unusual to see a large group of teenagers pacing themselves around Traverse Town now, what with all the sudden drop of teens from Earth. Plus, they had a duck and a giant dog-man with them. So this wasn't your typical journey. They weren't sure if they'd some back or not.

Hell, this wasn't 300, but it was pretty damn close.

"Wait up, kupo!" A small squeaky voice called. Sora and friends turned to see a familiar white-bodied, red-puff-balled moogle drifting quickly to them. "You can't leave, kupo, at least not all of you! You're in charge of Twilight Town, kupo!"

Fleeting looks passed throughout the group again. "_Neku…_exactly what did you tell the moogles when you came here?" Ashley groaned.

"Well uh…"

"_Kupo, who are you?" Neku opened his eyes to some little plush doll. Shiki and Eri were waking up next to him. The red bricks rolled to giant doors around him. They also led to a deserted patio and a brightly illuminated Accessory Shop. "Are you the new kids taking care of Traverse Town, kupo?"_

"_Traverse Town…?" He muttered. Neku looked at his friends for help but they only shrugged. The kupo-machine was still floating in front of him, waiting eagerly for his answer. "I guess we are…"_

"OH MY GOSH, NEKU! They're never going to let us leave now!" Ashley wailed.

"Well…" Shiki said, calming the Composer down. "The moogle _did_ say _all_ of us couldn't leave. I'll stay behind with Eri, y'know, watch the town."

"Perfect!" Sora sang out. "Kairi, why don't you stay with Shiki and Eri? You can help 'em around with the new people coming in."

When all the byes and hugs were past, Neku took off with Sora, Riku and Ashley. Languid as Neku usually was, he couldn't help but keep staring out of the gummi ship window. I mean, it felt so humbling. The awe that couldn't be contained in his body came out as an "Awwww" when the gummi ship arrived at a floating castle. "Disney Castle, I take it?"

"You take it right then, Neku. Now let's just contact Chip and Dale to land in the hangar." Sora said.

"No, you don't need to do that, Sora." Ashley told him. Her eyes were closed and she was rubbing her temples again. Headaches again. "I'll wait up here, can't go down there."

Riku's eyes were mere slits. He was glaring intently at the Composer. "I'm staying here too."

She poked one eye through her bangs. "You? Why?"

"Don't know, you tell me." He cracked.

Sora and Neku exchanged awkward looks. "Okay, then, Riku. You'll stay here with Ashley while Neku and I go see Joshua." And on that, Sora opened a portal to the Castle.

When they were clearly gone, Ashley grabbed her shoulders instead of internal shivering. "Reminds you of Xion, huh?"

He smirked. "I'm more predictable than I thought. I thought Naminé erased her. And you?"

"Not now, at least not yet."

**

* * *

//~*~\\**

* * *

"C'mon, yo, when they comin?"

"Patience is a virtue, Beat."

"She's right, Beat. Neku will arrive soon enough."

Beat sighed and sunk back down into his chair. Queen Minnie had given him, his sister, and Joshua as well, rooms to stay in for now. They overlooked the garden, where most people who visit pass through. And as usual, one was impatient, one had the adages, and the other was…whatever Joshuas did. Their monotonous routine was finally broken when a familiar voice flowed through the closed door.

"Your friends should be down this hallway."

"Thank you, Your Highness." There was one set of petite steps, followed by a pair of heftier steps.

"I still don't believe this entire castle is a whole other world." Beat sat up from his cushion in unison with Rhyme and Joshua.

"You better believe it, Neku." This voice was one Beat could scarcely identify. Joshua had barely skimmed on the topic of Neku's new partner.

"I think this is the place, Sora." Sora…so that was the boy. Neku pushed open the violet door and was immediately greeted with a bear hug from Beat (or a Beat hug, as Rhyme sometimes called it.) He was smiling brightly as he was trapped between Beat's muscular arms. "Heh, leave it to a skater-brain like you to end up on an entirely different PLANET than us!"

"Whatchu talkin' 'bout Phones? You was the one who landed on a different planet!" The older Bito said, trying to compose his sudden outburst of feelings. "Ain't that right, Rhyme!"

She giggled. "Doesn't matter. We're all together again."

"Speaking of together…" Neku stepped back from his friend. "Meet Sora. Sora, meet Beat, Rhyme and Joshua."

Joshua quickly strode to the front of the Keyblader. "Sora, hmm? Interesting. And it was about time I met you. Ashley is where?"

"She got motion sickness on the way here. Riku's on the ship with her right now." Sora told the boy. Joshua held his chin in consideration. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, it was nothing." Joshua waved it off. He was going to say something else, but the little queen mouse burst into the room.

"Oh my, please come, and hurry!" She scurried out of the room, the entourage of teens close behind her.

"Your Highness, what's wrong?" Sora called out halfway to the library.

"The King!" She simply stated. By this time, Neku, Beat and Rhyme had to work extremely hard not to get memorized in the castle wall's details. Sora pushed the library doors open and couldn't believe his eyes.

King Mickey…was right in front of him? Wait, no, it couldn't be. He already left the castle looking for the Decoders! And no, it wasn't the King. He was showing from a blue light emitting from a small contraption on the floor. Then he bounced out of the blue light, and ran through again, Keyblade brandished, and was being chased by a couple of Dusks. "Your Majesty!" Donald yelled, suddenly joining the crowd. Goofy was beside him, pushing past all the castle servants gathered in the library. "Sora! What's wrong?"

Mickey must've heard him because he abruptly stopped his fighting and ran closer to his side of the projector. "Sora? Is that you?"

"In the flesh, Your Majesty." Sora answered. Mickey raised his Keyblade and blocked an oncoming blow. "Are you okay!"

"Neku! Are you there!" He called out, ignoring Sora's question.

"Y-yes, sir. What do you need?"

"Oh, thank the stars

* * *

. Sora, take Neku to Twilight Town and visit Yen Sid. I'm sorry I can't tell you this in person, but he will tell you all you need to know. Now, hurry Sora!" The King held his arms up and his back to the projector. Suddenly, a Berserker was bringing its hammer down onto the King, and the signal flickered out. Everyone gasped, hanging onto the despair that the King was injured.

"Sora…please hurry, and be safe, Neku." Queen Minnie whispered. She took Sora's hand and placed something in his palm. "Take it."

"What is it?" He asked, holding it up.

"A key chain for Celestial Abyss. It should protect you from the darkness I foresee ahead."

**

* * *

chapter three**

**

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.:of directors and the dead:.**

**

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//closed\\**

* * *

This chapter seemed a bit lacking to me. Admit it. It was. Anyways…

Ooh, I mades a new key chain! It'll be explained more in the next chapter. And, what's up with Ashley? Why's she always sickish when she gets near the Castle? (Hinthint: YELLOW SHOES) The hint kinda traces from several things, so it's not too easy. And! And! Is the King okay?

One more thing. I'm sorry I suddenly grouped the girls together like that. It's part of the plot, but I didn't think it'd end up like that.

Then again, I didn't think a lot of things would end up the way they just did.

**

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.:amaya out:.

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**


	4. Encounters

**

* * *

The World Ends With You, Too

* * *

**Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud "Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there's this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."

**

* * *

Amaya's Note:

* * *

**Feh…I think I'm breaking a few TOS rules with my freakishly long author's notes. I seriously don't know what makes them so long…they just are. So, yeah.

I'm sorry if Beat's vocabulary sounds too proper or even more improper than what it should be. I got ninety-seven percent on my English final so it's kinda hard for me to not be using proper language. Just reading the TWEWY lines was hard enough. I found so much grammatical errors! GAH!

(And I know I'm forgetting to say something here, so if you find out, just know that I would've told you if I remembered. Kinda like telling you without actually telling you…is that even _possible?_)

OH! I REMEMBER! I do something in chapter four I never thought I'd do…then again…

**

* * *

Disclaimer

* * *

**Did I forget this in the other chapters too? Danggit. But before we start any of this, I DO NOT OWN ANY OF TWEWY OR KH. Sure as hell I'd like to but you don't see that happening anytime soon.

**

* * *

//encounters\\

* * *

**

Sora remained in the Castle to wrap up a few loose ends while Neku and the others started for the gummi ship. They would've been lost for who knows how long if Joshua hadn't used _intuition_ to lead them through the hallways. The ornate walls and elaborate rugs looked exactly the same! But they quickly drew in their breaths (minus Joshua, who had already had the tour of the place) when they entered the hangar. The intricate details had passed through a garden and through another door, where the beauty had morphed into…metal.

"Yo, where's the ships you talkin' 'bout, Josh?" Beat called out when he lagged in coming into the hangar.

The Composer was standing next to a gummi ship, one of the Falcon models to be exact. "Beat, we're talking about immense space travel. You can't make do with just the Titanic image you're probably forming in your mind right now."

"So whatchu sayin' is…" He started.

"Beat, I think what Joshua is trying to say is that you can't get from one world to another on a ship like the Titanic." Rhyme said. She continued to walk into the hangar, Beat close behind her. What was weird was that almost every mechanism in the room looked like three circles. No, almost like the Queen, maybe the King? Even funnier, the bloops, bleeps, whirr and hum of the room seemed to make a little tune in sync with her footsteps.

"Hey! Who's there?" A high-pitched voice called out. Rhyme turned to the source of the sound but couldn't find it. "Down here!" It called.

"Whaa—"

"Are you Sora's new friends?" Another voice asked. This one was of a deeper accent. She was still fervently searching for the voices, but only found two little…

"Awww, squirrels!" Rhyme cooed. She squatted down and smiled sweetly at the two creatures. Her adoration for them only deepened when she noticed their little green garments.

"We're not squirrels," the 'squirrels' chirped together. "We're chipmunks!"

Rhyme blinked once. Oh, yeah, that's right. A squirrel's tail was evidently puffier than chipmunks. "I-I'm sorry! But you _do_ look adorable! My name is Raimu Bito, but my friends just call me Rhyme. You can too."

The chipmunk with the red nose spoke first. "The name's Dale. That over there's…"

"Chip!" The second chipmunk finished. "We're the one's in charge of this hangar."

Rhyme stole a peek to Beat, Neku and Joshua over her shoulder. They were watching her carefully.

After all…Rhyme _should've _known the difference between the two.

**

* * *

//~*~\\

* * *

**

"Yes, Ms. Kisaragi."

"And don't forget to take care of Pinocchio!"

"_Yes_, Ms. Kisaragi."

"And the Dalmatians—oh! You can't forget them!"

"_Yes, Ms. Kisaragi."_

"Oh! And—"

"AHEM…Yuffie, that's enough." Leon cleared his throat in an awfully loud manner. Yuffie puffed her cheeks and turned to him. "It's bad enough you've got the girls calling you Kisaragi. Let them be." From behind the ninja, Leon could see Shiki, Eri and Kairi sighing in relief. When Sora had called, telling them of the Decoders, he had also informed them that new people were taking care of Traverse Town. Instantly, Cid had video-phoned the Accessory shop, where they had found the girls hard at work sifting through papers. An influx of people continued to enter the shop, and they had made the process as orderly as possible, with a new system of licenses in the town. It seemed to work perfectly…until someone disrupted the girls' concentration.

Kairi mouthed a thank you. Leon nodded in acknowledgment.

Besides, they were in charge of their former homes. The gun-blader couldn't blame Yuffie for making sure it'd still be safe.

"Anyways," Aerith continued. "How have you been Kairi?"

She grinned. "Same old, same old. Travel between the worlds and help Sora save everyone. Besides, I got to meet Shiki and Eri because of that."

The best friends beamed when their names were mentioned. "What happened ta you guys?" Cid asked. "Lose yer worlds?"

It seemed to strike a chord, but Shiki didn't show it when she talked. "Yup, and we ended up here. We saw it coming; Shibuya was starting to get unruly."

The engineer stopped and considered. Radiant Garden was like that way back when it was still Hollow Bastion. "Where's my manners? Name's Cid. Right over there you got Leon, Yuffie, Aerith and that kook magician Merlin." They blinked when they couldn't find the missing latter. "He comes when he pleases. We're all the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee (RDRC for reference). It used to be Hollow Bastion 'stead of Radiant Garden, but well, that ain't what this place is called anymore. So why you guys stuck with the technical stuff?"

They laughed again. Riku and Neku, they could imagine handling all these papers, but Sora and Beat? Don't even try to think about the impossible. This time, Eri answered. "I wasn't like, really sure if I could help them or only hold them back, so I decided to stay with Shiki to try and find out about what's going on. That's like, the reason for all these papers. Right, Kairi?"

The Princess agreed. "I'm here because I'm helping them."

"That's good. What do ya guys have on the Decoders now?"

Kairi hesitated and looked at Shiki and Eri for help. They were uncertain as she was. "Well, actually…"

**

* * *

//~*~\\

* * *

**

He smiled and clicked the red button on his phone. Sora had instantly regretted about calling the RDRC about Traverse Town when he heard Yuffie's over-excitement. But no matter, her annoyances were out of good intentions. He was also faced with empty smiles. Neku, Joshua, Beat and his little sister Rhyme barely knew him. "Ready to go?"

"But how, yo?" Beat asked.

Sora stifled from laughing at him. He opened a portal and half-stepped to it. "By that."

Beat and Rhyme's nearly dropped to the ground (I _guess_ Joshua did too. A portal didn't amaze him just yet.) Neku sighed when he noticed their hesitation. He went behind his friends and shoved them gently into the swirling chasm. Nearing its edge, the shoving went easily. The void seemed to just pull them in. The next thing Neku knew, he was walking in the portal again.

He was walking on a floor that was there…but didn't seem to. Neku wasn't moving his feet but he continued to move forward. When he thought about it, he didn't have any physical control over his body. It was almost as if he were floating to the other side of the portal. He felt light and airy inside, almost as if a wind could carry him away like a feather. Neku closed his eyes, letting it all soak in. Although this was his second time going through this, he was just as astounded as the first.

…Darkness does not always equate to evil…just as light does not always bring good…

"What?" Neku asked.

…_Neku…Sakuraba…you are the final answer to their prayers…_

"Who's there?" He called out. Neku noticed he was on the gummi ship now, where all his friends were watching him cringe on the floor.

"Neku, it's only us." Rhyme said.

Ashley smirked. She knew something was up. What is was though, she couldn't exactly pinpoint. _Maybe…maybe the intervention had already started._ "Neku, are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, fine." He forced a smile and sat down, staring out at the stars again. Sora and Riku started their introductions and Beat, Rhyme, Joshua and Ashley followed in the same suit. "Hey Sora? Where are we going now?"

Sora glanced over his shoulder. "Twilight Town. We're going to visit the King's teacher there. He's going to tell us about—" It struck a chord with him. He remembered that the King hadn't told Neku about the Decoders. Sora instantly pulled the Accessory Shop on the screen.

"Traverse Town Accessory Shop. How may we he—Sora!" Kairi's exuberant smile beamed on the display. It quickly dissolved when she noticed his solemn face. "What's wrong?"

The keyblader muttered something to her as Riku took over controls. Kairi answered a no to Sora when Shiki and Eri came into view. They happily greeted Neku and the others, but when Kairi told them something, they nodded in agreement. Their faces stoned just like hers and Sora's.

"Neku…" Eri started.

Shiki continued. "We didn't tell you this, but we _think_ you're in danger."

There was a startling awkward moment on the vessel. Neku felt like the middle of attention, although everyone already knew what was happening. Everyone but Neku himself. Kairi cleared her throat unnecessarily to break the eerie silence. "We met some people here in the shop and they told us about these people that might be putting you in danger, Neku. The Decoders. Ring any bells, Neku?"

…_Expect help from where you least expect it…_

"Who the hell are you!" Neku screeched.

Kairi recoiled and blinked as if holding back tears. "My name's Kairi Sonoda if you uh…forgot?"

Neku duplicated her reaction. He swirled his hands in the air, trying to collect his thoughts. "No, not you. There's this voice in my head. Like it's there…I can hear the words, I just can't hear who's saying it."

Sora understood what Neku was saying. _The Awakening…but for what?_ Kairi was asking if he'd like to meet the people who told her this when they were attacked by enemy ships. "Tsk, bad timing!" The last of he saw of the Accessory Shop were the girls yelling before communication was cut off. "Everyone! Brace yourself!"

He swiveled his head quickly enough to see everyone on board do so. Beat was sitting next to Rhyme protectively; Neku was clutching the handle tightly; and the Composers were only watching the windows intensively. Riku abruptly shouted out to Sora, "Starboard engines down!"

Sora didn't know exactly which side was starboard, but he knew losing an engine was bad news. "Hold off the other ships! We'll have to skip Twilight Town and land in front of the tower!"

Riku nodded in agreement. He promptly started to aim and smash down the buttons to clear a path. Sora was hard at work pivoting around the debris while not completely throwing Neku and his friends out of their seats. Almost frivolously, the Tower came into view. He could scarcely make out little white specks dancing around the lush grass. _Grr, too late, Nobodies already got there before us!_

"Can you guys fight?" Sora yelled out.

The answers thrown back at him varied. Joshua was able to fight with his phone and Ashley with her star pendant necklace (he decided that he wouldn't ask about that yet), Beat could deal blows with his skateboard, but Neku and Rhyme used pins, which they said wouldn't work right now. Sora's brows had furrowed with news of that. But he didn't have anytime to think of it. Red lights starting blaring on the ship and it became hard to control its balance with the oncoming turbulence. The next thing he knew, up was down and left was right when the gummi ship tumbled onto the lawn. Thankfully, everyone was able to come out nearly unscathed.

He wasn't sure for how long that would last though. The Dusks began slithering their way over to the crash as Sora wiped off a trail of blood leaking from his mouth. Neku saw the hesitation on Sora's face and couldn't help but think this was the end. His body was crammed under his seat and Neku strained to stand up. Finally, he slunk through the shattered glass and yanked out a triangular piece embedded into his right arm. A steady stream of blood trickled down his limb, but Neku grabbed the nearest hand anyways.

Sora emerged. He bellowed an incoherent battle cry and dove right into the oncoming herd, beginning to fend off the adversaries. There were surely a lot of them, much more than the Heartless he defeated in the Radiant Garden invasion. A Dancer Nobody came up behind him and threw him to another one. _It's over too soon…_Sora slammed onto the ground, impairing his right eye vision. He blocked another hit from a Dusk but saw another one rapidly making its way to his side. Sora clenched his jaw to prepare for impact but never felt it.

"You…are done!"

White light blinded him for a second, and then his eyes adjusted. What Sora saw were at least a third of the Nobodies succumbing to the power and disappearing in wisps of darkness. A second later, Joshua landed on the grass, orange cell phone in hand. He was gaping at the strength that device had. "Do I want to ask?"

"Only if you think you'll understand." Joshua nodded his head before continuing his onslaught. Swiftly, the Composer leaped into the air (where he seemed to hover!) and dialed some numbers, as the pillars of glowing radiance fazed the Nobodies. A Dragoon instantly appeared behind the dusty-gray haired boy and aimed its gun at him. The red beam was shot towards Joshua's back, but Sora intercepted.

That's how it continued. Joshua would linger in the air, wailing on the foes beneath and Sora would wipe out the ones attacking Josh. Sora bounded backwards from a Dancer's glowing fist and his chest heaved from exhaustion. Joshua appeared not too long after beside him, now slowing dialing and causing unusual items to fall from the sky. Sora was barely able to talk as he cast a cure spell. "Can you take any more?" He breathed out.

Joshua smirked ever so slightly. "Sora, the question is, can _you?"_

"JUMP IT!" A voice called out.

The Composer instantaneously grabbed Sora under his arms and teleported to the air. Below them, a large, spinning star connected to a delicate but strong chain swept out the Nobodies in that radius. Soon after, Ashley called back her necklace and arrived on the scene on Beat's skateboard.

"Yo yo yo! Dontchu think we left outta fight!" Beat yelled out. Ashley hopped off as he ollied onto a Dusk and jumped off of it. It faltered before he did the attack again. He cheered when it dispersed. Ashley fought with her beloved necklace, lashing it out like a yo-yo. When the chain had stretched out all the way, the star pendant remained there for a while, twisting its spikes deeper into whomever was at the end. (Whenever it was outreached, the star seemed to grow in size. And when it was called back, it shrunk to a regular necklace dimension.) When it returned to her she flitted around much like Kairi to find another blind spot.

"C'mon now Sora, why'd you go running off like that?" She teased. He laughed. In the midst of all this fighting, everyone was still making playful remarks about each other's battling styles. But also, their energy was quickly depleting. No matter how strong Joshua's beam was or how quick Ashley was or how high Beat could ollie or how much Nobodies Sora took out they just kept on coming! There was no end in sight!

Sora wavered to the center of the battlefield, where the other three had come together. They were still fighting but in a circular formation. Another wave of Nobodies had hit the cluster and Sora could hear Ashley wailing in pain from a hit. He cast a Cure again and the green aura flourished the fighters. And over the noise, he _had _to wonder out loud. "Where are they coming from?" He yelled.

"Thought you were stronger than that Sora." A flash of silver blurred his vision and Riku was seen rapidly fighting off the closer circle of Nobodies. Sora rested for a split second before resuming his battle position. Riku looked back over to the shipwreck and for no reason, hollered, "Just like laser tag!"

Beams of yellow and green attacked the swarm and nearly over half of the remaining Dusks and Dancers were taken out. Sora turned his head in unison with Beat, Joshua and Ashley to see Neku and Rhyme holding the…the gummi ship lasers? He smiled at their quick improvisation. As the glowing plasma was shot out, the two teens stepped back in its power. Neku furrowed his brow, aiming for the Nobodies nearest the circle while Rhyme took care of the larger target range. She widened her eyes when she noticed she had accidentally shot at the Tower. A chunk of the wall had fallen off and Rhyme shrieked out, "Watch out!"

"What?" In a quick flash, all of the hundreds of Nobodies disappeared in swirling tufts of darkness. The voice that had responded to Rhyme had cursed under her breath. "Crap darn it, you guys weren't supposed to see me!"

The voice had cursed again before running into the lobby. She was dressed in a black trench coat and her face was shrouded completely in the hood's shadow. The _click-clack_ of her boots was all too familiar to Sora. But Roxas was more prone to this intimacy. I mean, he'd been wearing those for a while too.

This girl was a Decoder.

**

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****chapter four****

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****.:encounters:.****

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****//closed\\

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**

Yes! Now I get to rant on uselessly about how there was supposed to be an actual fight scene with the Decoder. I just decided to get Ashley's fighting technique in here then this whole fight with everyone appeared outta nowhere. It was a mixture of the necklace I really do have and Yuffie's ninja star. And 'crap darn it?' Yes, I do say that in real life as well.

Should you expect a fight with the Decoder in the next chapter?

You could, but of course, you might not ever know.

And you'll never guess who the Decoder is. She's from TWEWY. Go ahead, take a crack at it.

**

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.:amaya out:.

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	5. chAse

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The World Ends With You, Too

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**

Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud "Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there's this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."

**

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Amaya's Note:

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**

AHEM…you're the problem, not I_._ GET IT?

'Nuff said. Again. This chapter, hmm…the 'A' is capitalized for an up arrow. Since they're going to be going up the Tower. Now let's see how on track I can stay. Not much anyways.

(Don't kill me; please I'm begging you. Ashley is more of a self-insert than an OC. Pity me, here's the RJFD from chapter two again.)

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Disclaimer

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**

I think you guys got the idea. KH and TWEWY belong to Square-Enix/Disney and Jupiter. 'Cause you know, if I did own it, I wouldn't be here sitting in front of my computer, writing some fan fictions.

**

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//chAse\\

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**

_Dammit, what do they want now, _Neku yelled to himself. No more than only twenty minutes ago had he learned the group of people this girl belonged to were set out to get him. One way or the other, anyways. He ran in closely behind Sora, gummi ship laser tightly clutched. The girl had squeaked when they saw her in front of a glowing green, yellow and bluish portal. A tuft of brown hair escaped her hood before she tucked it back in and running through the light. Sora nearly jumped half of the spiraling staircase but was blocked by two Berserkers. Sora hissed at them. "Dammit, get out of the way!"

Whoa. First time _anyone_ ever heard _Sora_ curse.

I mean…SORA SAID THE D WORD.

He lifted Kingdom Key into the air but seemed to freeze in place. "Sora!" Riku called.

The silver haired boy swept and blocked a blow for Sora. His friend regained consciousness before Riku pulled him off of the stairs. Neku and Rhyme shot the claymores before they could hit the two. Riku and Sora grabbed the two oversized sticks and their heads seemed to glow red. They swiftly gyrated in the air, bashing the Berserkers almost relentlessly. The Berserkers were defeated, however four more appeared in their places.

Sora lunged up to strike one but Ashley lassoed him down with her chain. Joshua held his shoulder when Sora was released. "We'll take care of these. Take Neku up to Yen Sid. Now, go!" The Composer had joined hands with Sora, Neku, Riku, Beat and Rhyme and teleported to the light. Once there, he shoved the group through. "Ashley and I can handle ourselves!"

Sora was holding the handle of Kingdom Key so tightly by the time they had went through the portal, another stream of blood was dripping from his hand.

_**Sora, just calm down. **_**I'm**_** mad at them, not **_**you.**

_Roxas, you _are_ me. Whatever you feel manifests in me._

So that was why the adrenaline pulsing through Sora fed his anger so much. Roxas had barely known anything of the Decoders, but he had learned through the Organization that they were Nobodies, forever destined to fade into darkness sooner or later. Why had he gotten so irritated anyways? The Decoders were trying to change their fates, more likely than not. Their tries would end up frivolous and Roxas would have to be part of the fact that he's going to destroy them. The girl squeaked again before disappearing into the next room. Dragoons materialized instead. They all steadied their aim to the teens.

Tens, if not hundreds, of red beams shot towards them. Beat jumped to the front of the entourage and blocked the rays with his skateboard. About one fifth of the end had shattered to pieces. Beat growled, "Yo, you guys gotta pay for dat!"

Sora smiled when Beat had motioned them to continue with Riku and Neku. Rhyme had led them with the laser shelling out the Nobodies in the way. She joined in Sora's smiled before they entered the Moon Chamber. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he won't get in any trouble."

The Decoder was nowhere in sight when the trio was trapped in the room. Only about thirty Creepers appeared. They were the weakest of the Nobodies and so the battle was quickly over. The barrier was lifted in a relaxing flash and Sora accompanied Riku to the exit. But Neku remained planted to the spot. "Wait…I need to ask you guys something."

The other two looked back at him before turning the knob. Sora glanced at Riku before answering. "Shoot."

"Exactly what kind of danger am I in?"

The answer was stuck in a lump in Sora's throat. Riku would've answered but Roxas did so instead. "We don't know yet. That's why we're here. The Organization was seriously some group of sticks in the mud because we were made up of Nobodies able to think and work together. Because of that, we were dangerous and—" Like Sora, Roxas choked at his own words. "—Eliminated anyone who got in the way. Master Yen Sid is going to tell us what you have to do with the Decoders."

"Roxas," Riku started. Neku's eyes bulged when he realized he was talking to the Nobody. "We need Sora back now."

"Right here." Sora shook his hands once more when he was able to talk as himself. "Let's go. If the Decoder gets to Yen Sid before us, who knows what could happen."

They nodded. The last of the spiraling staircase avenged the lost Nobodies. It was piled with every kind of Nobody imaginable (well, almost. Roxas was shunning away the Samurais right now). Sora didn't need to look at his friend to know what he was thinking. Grabbing Neku's and Sora's shoulders, Riku dashed to the other side. The pathway that they had forced themselves through was slowly disappearing, and the first wave of Nobodies came their way. Riku jumped to them, calling back, "You said it yourself, Sora! Who knows what could happen to Yen Sid?"

Sora pushed through the door leading to the Star Chamber. Nothing was here. It was absolutely empty. Yet…

A border was preventing them from proceeding.

The two teenagers could hear Riku grunting and yelling on the other side of the barrier. He continued attacking relentlessly as a _whoosh_ signaled the summoning of more Nobodies. Sora was breathing deeply on the floor, with his back pressed against the wall. Neku copied his motion from across the room. He almost felt ready to sleep when the Keyblade master started to talk. "Neku, you've asked your question, now it's time for mine."

Neku's eyes cracked open, waiting for the regret he most likely would get afterwards.

"What's the Reaper's Game?"

His brows furrowed in astonishment. "Didn't I already answer that Sora?"

"Barely." Sora stood up and came over next to Neku. There was an awkward silence before he spoke again. "You were hiding something."

Neku nodded so slightly Sora thought he shivered. Eri wasn't here so he could tell Sora everything he needed to know. "Like I said, death in Shibuya is a game. It's THE Game. When someone dies, they're taken to the Reaper's Game, where their worth is tested. The Reapers work under the Composer, who is in charge of that particular area. Joshua is Composer of Shibuya and Ashley is Composer of San Francisco." He paused to let Sora think. He didn't know any of those places anyways. "The Reapers weed out any unworthy Players, who are the dead people. By the end of the week, the remaining Players can come back to life or can become a Reaper. It's their choice. Beat, Shiki, Rhyme and I chose to come back."

"WAIT!" Sora screeched, raising his hands to stop Neku. "You…are you a-a _zombie_ then?"

"No." Neku answered flatly. "I am _not_ a zombie."

"Oh, thank the stars then. I don't want to be fighting next to a zombie because they just might pork chop the back of my head and eat my brains." Sora joked. Neku laughed with him, slowly learning to trust this boy more. There was a light and cheery air around him that made him more welcoming. It pulled him in, suddenly making him want to talk with him more.

…_When all else failed…they turned to destruction…_

Neku hastily stood up because of an abstract force. It thrust him towards the exit, but instead of opening the door, he was slammed against it. The force smeared his face along the wall, the wood starting to dig deep into Neku's cheek. The next sensation he felt was levitation, like Joshua. But it was a bad sensation because he nearly suffered from being strangled. In the corner of his eye, Neku could see Sora pinned against the wall like him too.

…_Knowledge is as bad as it is good…Neku…_

Sora was dropped limply to the ground. The places he was being held were bleeding furiously. It felt like icy warm hands, like sticking them into a fire after freezing them. Its nails embedded themselves into Sora's skin and dragged it along his arm. The scarlet liquid trickled their way to the end of his finger and dribbled to the slowly forming puddle on the floor.

There was a thump soon after, and Sora turned his head to see Neku's writhing on the floor. "Neku…?" He asked, stepping forward.

"NO!" The orange haired boy hissed. Neku was curled over himself on the floor and his hands held the headphones on his head tightly. He seemed to be trembling. "S-stay away…p-please!"

Neku could hear Sora pacing away, and the merciless wail in his head alleviated ever so slightly. It gave him a headache, kind of like the one you get when you hyperventilate. He knew what this was, Ashley had told him. This was an Imagination spike. Someone near here knew about the Reaper's Game and they weren't supposed to. It couldn't have been Sora. Sora saves the worlds all the time. He would need to know this if he was going to save Earth. It must've been the Decoder.

The buzzing reluctantly ceased in his head. Neku stood up with the help of Sora. "You okay?" He asked.

Neku nodded, but only seemed to reawaken the dizzy throbbing. "We need to find that Decoder. She—" Neku choked on his words. He had an idea of who she was, but why would she be a Nobody? "She knows about the Reaper's Game and she's not allowed to."

**

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//~*~\\

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**

They sunk to the floor, their backs against each other. They were panting heavily as the last Berserker trailed away in wisps of darkness. The number 6 button on Joshua's phone was coming loose and one of Ashley's chain links was deformed. "Whew," Ashley breathed out. "Close, huh, Joshy-kun?"

Joshua didn't answer to that. But he spoke when she started shivering again. "Is Neku okay?"

"Y-yeah, but I wouldn't count on the Soul around him."

**

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//~*~\\

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**

They didn't know what was holding them back. The force was fastening them to the ground. Worse yet, Roxas had gone unconscious, allowing the Samurais to plague. Neku was defenseless against the Nobodies. The plasma simply didn't do anything to them. Sora had been flashing in and out of his view, and when he appeared, a trace of dark strands fluttered into the air. But every once in a while, Sora would reappear with more cuts than before. "Sora!" Neku called, when he had fallen to the ground.

Light lavender prisms surrounded Sora as he cast Reflect. The Nobodies bounced effortlessly off of them. "N-Neku! Go!"

Sora directed Aero on the proxy, and he was blown towards the exit. He couldn't see Sora anymore; too much Samurais had piled on top of him. The Keyblade master saw Neku's hesitation and used the last of his magic to open the door. Neku reluctantly nodded, prayed a silent prayer and ran through.

The room inside was decorated with scattered books. Papers danced in the eerie wind flying through the window. In the middle of it all was a giant chair, accompanied with an even bigger desk. The backside of the chair was facing Neku, and the door behind him shut instantly. "Master Yen Sid? My name is Neku Sakuraba. Are you here, sir?"

The silence frightened him. Through the magical door, he could hear Sora yelling at the Nobodies. It sounded like he was faring very well…for fights like this anyways.

Then there was a voice. A familiar one. One Neku simply couldn't put a finger on; he knew the person, he just forgot where. "Neku, I'm ashamed. Here you are, practically ignoring your intervention, and you still can't fight!"

_Intervention?_ Who?

"I'm Code Green. White's really happy with the name your King gave us." Green said. Neku responded her with a blank look. "Oh, right, not _your_ King, but Sora's. The Decoders, ohehe. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

This girl was playing with his mind. First, she was scared of Neku, and now…was she making fun of him? When Neku wanted to talk, his voice cracked. "W-why are you Green?"

"Green?" Green started. "Well, you sho—"

"NO! More importantly, _why_ are you here?" Neku interjected.

"Neku, I don't expect you to know, but Sora of all people should've." Green told him, turning the chair around to face him. Her face was screwed between Joshua's smirk and Riku's scowl. "Yen Sid hasn't been here since Sora came."

"What?" Neku clutched the gun tightly when Green stood up.

"To answer your other question, I'm Green because of what green represents. Although I'm more of a dark green. That's all you can know right now. Nekky-kun, do you want to fight?"

"Nekky-_kun_?" The proxy stammered. Before he knew it, Green had pressed him against the wall with the back of her forearm.

"I don't have any weapons, unlike you, so this isn't fair. White's going to be calling soon, and she wants you alive still." As if on cue, Green's phone vibrated in the covered pocket of her coat. "Green here…Yes! I'm not _that_ stupid, sheesh…Fine, sorry…Now? Do I have to?…Yeah, what_ev._ Bye." Green hung up, seeming the least bit annoyed, but that feeling was still there. "Gotta go now, so take care!"

Weird as she was, Green was composed as she readied herself to jump out the window.

"Wait!" Neku could feel the word yelled through his mouth. "W-who are you?"

Green smiled, Neku could barely see the curve. "_I_'m not allowed to tell you, but _I_ wish _I_ could. Bye Neku!"

With that, Green jumped out the opening.

**

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//~*~\\

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**

"_No Yen Sid?"_

"She said he hasn't been there since Donald, Goofy and I came over."

"_It's understandable. He probably went into hiding with the fairies when Maleficent was resurrected."_

Sora thought over this. He was talking with Kairi on the way back to Traverse Town. The chase up the Tower came out fruitless when Neku discovered the wizard was not there. He discovered more of a Decoder though. He knew the girl; it's been a long time though since they've seen each other. "Kai, can you open the hangar now?"

"_Sure thing, Sora. Be careful when you come out, though. There's been a lot of people who came from Earth here."_

"Got it, thanks." Riku guided the gummi ship into the hangar, being taken aback with all the new ships there. There was even a light spray of people down here! "That's…wow. There have never been _that_ much people here before."

Sora hopped off the ship, helping Neku, then Ashley, out. He held his hand to assist Rhyme, but all he saw of the brother and sister was what seemed to be a fight.

"What the hell, yo! Name's BEAT! Yo' older bro! Dai…Daisukenojo?" Beat yelled, even going to the extremes of using his real name (because Sora would've laughed if Neku told him otherwise).

"I'm sorry, Daisukenojo. We haven't met before. But I'm glad that we did meet!" Rhyme answered, naïveté splashed all over her smile. At this, Beat was on the verge of crying; Sora gaped at Rhyme's stupidity (because Beat was her brother!), Riku looked wide-eyed and confused; even the Composers did know what was happening! Neku followed in the same suit, but in the back of his mind, saw this coming.

Rhyme didn't know a chipmunk from a squirrel. It was only a matter of time before worse came to worse.

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chapter five

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****.:chAse:.****

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****//closed\\

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**

Yeesh, this chapter sucked. And what's up with Rhyme? (I've been asking that a lot) It's been a while since I've updated, hasn't it? Forget that! School's finally ended for me (today 6/5/09, it's here for reference) and I've got all summer to work on this! But damn my math/science teacher (no, not really. She's pretty awesome) for giving me homework over the summer because I'm SMART. Bejeebus. I'm a smart nerd writing fanfictions on the web.

For those Quizilla owners, I'm proud to say that Nietono-no-Shana has logged on again! I'm not stalking her, jeez, I just saw her Quizilla profile and saw the log in date.

And yas, I've taken up the 101 drabble challenge. Just for the heck of it. If you want the list, go ahead and tell me! I'll send it!

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.:amaya out:.

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	6. Contemplations

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The World Ends With You, Too

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**

Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud "Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there's this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."

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Amaya's Note:

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**

Jeez, you guys know your characters. Prolly put too much clues, didn't I. One more thing, if the character's already died/erased in the game, they won't appear here 'cause they're dead/erased.

I'm sorry; I feel slightly uninspired right now. Hopefully, by the time I'm done with this author's note, I'll crash and fall asleep and have some miracle dream for the plot.

(Lol, we just got Chocobo Tales for my sister. It's actually pretty awesome…in a way!)

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Disclaimer:

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**

Yeah, you get the point. Otherwise, the main chocobo's name in Chocobo Tales is up to the player. I decided to call my chocobo Wasabi. Why? Cuz that's a kick-butt name!

**

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//contemplation\\

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**

"R-Rhyme?" Beat quivered, his harsh nightmares becoming reality to him. His sister was simply staring back at him, unknowing of what had just occurred. She looked into everyone's eyes, and it was only until then did she figure how serious the situation was.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, a solemn feeling creeping onto her face. No one answered. "Um, but can you help me? I was looking for my brother because he ran away from home, but I ended up here."

Sora furrowed his brows in confusion. "Rhyme, your—" Sora over Rhyme's head to see Beat flailing his arms recklessly. But it looked as if he was trying to stop Sora from continuing on. "—Your brother isn't here. I'm sorry."

"Oh…" her voice trailed off and she turned around. Sora could feel something wrong in the pits of his stomach, like he should've told the young Bito the truth.

It must've shown on his face because Neku came up to the Keyblade master and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Try not to worry about it too much. This happened already."

Joshua stood on the other side of the brunette. "Except last time, she didn't even remember running after Beat." He held his chin in consideration. "I do deeply wonder what's wrong now." The trio looked up to see Beat sadly joking with Rhyme. Even now, he wanted to make sure she was happy.

"What should we do then?" Sora asked.

"So you think Shirma might know?" Ashley spoke into her phone. She tapped the tip of the speaker impatiently. "Right, thanks Kairi. We'll be right there." She shut the device closed and turned to the three. "There's a group with the girls right now. They _might _have an idea of what's going on with Rhyme."

Rhyme quickly joined sides with Ashley and they talked as if nothing had happened. (Sora thought it could've been the fact that the Composer was the only other girl around, but he didn't bother about it too much) Beat lagged behind and Neku stayed with him for consolation. Joshua strode beside Sora, and the Keyblade master couldn't help himself from getting too curious. "Hey Joshua, earlier you said Rhyme lost her memory before. What was that about?"

The Composer turned his head to Sora. "I trust Neku had already explained the basics of the Reaper's Game to you?" Sora nodded. "Very well. The Reaper's Game subsists to test the worth of your existence. But in order for a person to partake in the Week, they must give up their most important possession. This entry fee was created in hopes that the Player will get a chance of self-enlightenment. Rhyme lost her memories of her brother Beat because they were _Beat's_ entry fee."

"What about her entry fee?" Sora asked. Neku tuned into the conversation, just in case he could find out as well.

"I'm not obliged to tell you that. Only until Rhyme herself finds out, I have to keep my lips shut." Joshua cocked an eyebrow to the Proxy. "Wouldn't _you_ like to know, Neku?"

Neku growled something disjointed and resumed speaking with Beat. Something popped up in Sora's mind in that instant. "What if…what if the person _doesn't_ have anything important in their life? Maybe that could've been what happened with Rhyme."

"Impossible." Joshua flatly stated. "Besides, of all people, I'm sure Rhyme has something important to care about."

Neku barely overheard that last line. He agreed. On his fourth day his first Week of the Game, Rhyme looked at Beat and thought about _his_ dreams. She said something about not being able to have her own. _Maybe…_

**

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//~*~\\

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**

"No! Wasabi! DON'T!" The group came into the Accessory Shop…at the wrong time. Papers fluttered as the girls were running about, chairs remained turned over, and a window or two were cracked. Sora was dumbfounded; Kairi wasn't _this_ unorganized. Heck, it almost reminded him of his room back home! The redhead was standing on a desk, twitching her head from side to side looking for something. Shiki was on her knees, searching the ground. Eri was scuttling around with another pink haired lady (clad in a one-piece beige dress) after a yellow bird. The pink haired lady yelled out, "Wasabiii! STOP!"

"Don't wasabi gotta be green, yo?" Beat asked.

Kairi reacted to his voice as she turned her attention to them. "You're back!"

"Kairi! Watch out!" Eri screamed. She chased after the yellow blur with the other pink haired lady as they bumped into the desk Kairi was on. She stumbled, tottered and eventually fell over onto the group below her. Eri stuck her head up from the bottom of the dog pile. "Yay! You caught it!"

Riku looked over the girls and into the net. Yeah, there was something yellow fidgeting inside of it, and the yellow thingy was making a whole lot of squeaking noises. He'd heard bits and pieces of the animal from Cloud while he still worked for Hades. "Chocobos?" He asked, leaning on the side of the door. By the looks of the pink haired lady, the answer almost seemed probable.

"You know about them?" The lady perked up. The group who had just come in eyed her curiously. "Oh! I'm Shirma! This here's my newest Chocobo, Wasabi."

Ashley stepped forward and Shirma seemed to inwardly flinch. "You must be the Chocobo trainer Kairi's been telling me about. My name's Ashley." She introduced, holding her hand out. Shirma reluctantly shook it. "I believe she's told you about Rhyme?"

"Yes, she has." Shirma smiles down to Rhyme. By the way she was acting, Sora could tell the trainer was a good 20 years older than him, and she had every right to be the motherly figure in the room. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, Rhyme?"

"Sure!" Rhyme piped. The two parted ways and took a walk outside. Sora looked around again, now that the commotion had (hopefully) died down, and saw exactly how messy it was.

"Kai, what's up with all the papers?" He asked nonchalantly.

Kairi, Shiki and Eri glanced at each other and giggled. They had the same conversation with Cid just the same day. "Well, back where Shiki and Eri are from, they had something called a government. And the government issued stuff out called birth certificates, which proved their birth." Riku and Sora shot her an awkward look. If you were standing in front of a person, then _of course_ you were born. "I didn't get it at first either, you guys, but it was actually smart."

Shiki took the explaining from here. "I never really understood what the birth certificates were for, but you needed them to get more official stuff, like a passport and driver's licenses, y'know?"

"No, frankly, I don't." Riku flatly stated.

"I gotta agree with him, Shiki." Neku joined in. "I've lived in Shibuya all my life and I think you've just made everything a bit more confusing."

She puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. "WELL, basically, the birth certificates help weed out any bad guys who came in here illegally or something. Everyone in Traverse Town has one, or they're supposed to. It helps us keep track of everyone, because if they want to leave, they have to check out their certificate. It's supposed to help us make sure no one goes missing or something bad doesn't happen to him or her."

"I get it now, I think." Sora said. He continued onto helping them sort out the papers. "Wait…there's over a thousand of these! How do you keep it organized?"

Kairi smirked. "I don't expect you to know about the technical junk, Sora. Three words: lots of filing. Just make sure your pile of papers are in alphabetical order." Sora groaned; he _really_ wouldn't know about this.

**

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//~*~\\

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**

"Anyways, Shirma's got this covered." Eri told Beat when the papers were (finally) in place. After 3 hours of crouching on the floor and sorting everything into place, Shirma still hadn't returned with Rhyme. "She came in with Wasabi after you guys left. She had two friends with her too, a Cid and a Croma. But don't worry, this Cid isn't the Cid you thought you knew."

"It's another Cid, a completely different Cid but they strangely do the same thing!" Kairi told them. Shiki nodded in agreement. "They kept on talking about turning the page or finding out what was the plot in this book when they arrived. They were convinced they were in some sort of fairy tale at first."

"When we told them what had probably happened to their world, they were going to leave right away for answers." Shiki started. "But Kairi had told them what you told us about Rhyme. Shirma said she specialized in psychological treatment and volunteered to check Rhyme. Cid and Croma left anyways, leaving Shirma and her Chocobo behind."

"Whew, that's a lot." Sora said, lacing his hands behind his head. Neku agreed. Only in one day had his world seemed to be turned upside down. Nothing he thought he knew was real. And here Sora was, acting as if this was happening to him on a daily basis.

"It's really more than what you think it is, Sora." Kairi retorted. "In all of their reports, large masses of people disappear before the world is destroyed. Worse yet, even more people are lost before they can reach here. Situations are getting poorer by the _second_. What if the Decoders have something to do with it?"

Neku shuddered. What if they did? What did he have to do with it, then? Shiki noticed his uncomfortable expression and decided to keep the conversation as short as possible. "Who do you think the Decoder was, Neku?" Oops, talking _about_ Decoders definitely didn't help you _stop_ thinking about them.

"It—it was…do you remember, Shiki, on our fifth day together, the fighting friends?" Neku muttered.

"Yeah, Ai and Mina." She answered.

"Well, I got thinking. The Decoder was Code Green, and green represents jealousy, right? And she kept referring to an intervention, so I just kinda put it together. Ai was jealous because she thought Mina was with Makoto. So it became a mission to stop them from fighting the following day."

"An intervention!" Shiki snapped. "Do you really think Green is Ai?" Neku nodded; he couldn't believe he just understood her identity. Even after Ai emphasized every _I_ in her parting sentence; it was painfully obvious now that he thought about it. Eri listened intently. Sora had asked her to go out of the room when this topic arose. She _did_ go out of the lobby of the Accessory Shop, but they never said anything against her listening right outside the door. She felt like she was helping them, but they were still not telling her something important. The backdoor near her starting clanking and she had to run to another room to prevent getting caught.

More important things came to mind though. Eri had heard the Decoders could be after more than just Neku's life, but after hearing them speculating about the possibility of Ai being a Decoder? It was almost impossible, almost because Ai _had_ been acting strangely after the fight. When Eri was shopping with Mina, she couldn't help but notice how much the two friends were ignoring each other. Afterwards, Eri went to Ai's house to ask about what was happening, all she could say was that she felt insecure while they were playing Reaper Creeper, almost as if nothing she was thinking was private. Eri climbed the ladder up and went to her room. Barely a week had passed for her to grasp what was happening, and yet she felt like as if she'd gone nowhere.

**

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//~*~\\

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**

Shirma blinked. In all her years of caring for Chocobos, she had never seen any scenario like Rhyme's. Now, Chocobos were nowhere near humans in anatomy, but their spiritual anatomy was nearly identical. Analytically, Rhyme was stressed of some sort. There was something…something… innocent. "Rhyme," Shirma finally spoke, after sitting down for so long with Rhyme. "Can you tell me what you remember of these people with you right now?"

She nodded. "Well…" Honestly, Rhyme couldn't remember _anything_ about them at all. She woke up…in Shibuya. Yes, faintly she started recalling what happened to her in the events of those three weeks. "It was only Neku's fourth day with Shiki, in his very first week, when we received a message to go to Towa Records. Beat got there ahead of me, but when I came after him…" Movement caught Rhyme's attention in the tree branches above her. "Oh look Shirma, a squirrel! It's so cu—" Suddenly, Rhyme could feel the cold pavement against the side of her face.

"Rhyme!" Shirma quickly stood up from her bench and rushed to the fallen Rhyme's side. Countless beads of sweat were forming on her forehead, but it was only a sign that Rhyme had fainted. Slowly, her consciousness returned. Rhyme opened her cobalt blue eyes, blinked, and then stared at Shirma. "Hello Rhyme, would you like me to take you back to your brother?"

Her expression lit up. "You found him?"

Shirma's breath was drawn back. That's right…Rhyme had forgot all about Beat, and was looking for her brother, although he was there the entire time. "N-no, I'm sorry, we haven't. But would you like to come with me and try to find him?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice, miss." Rhyme replied, accepting Shirma's help up.

"Shirma. You can call me Shirma." Shirma nodded and started walking with Rhyme back to the shop. "Well, Rhyme, can you tell me what your brother is like?"

"He's…he's nice. But he doesn't always act like it. He used to love doing something…skateboarding? No, it was roller-skating." Rhyme explained. Shirma's eyes widened as Rhyme began to subconsciously describe Beat. "Um, Shirma, are you okay?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, just fine. We're here now." Both looked to the backdoor where the light of the main room flickered through the window. "My friends are in here." Shirma walked up to the door and stuck her key in through the hole. The door swiveled open and all the heads in the lobby turned to her. Shirma leaned in over to Rhyme's ear. "Why don't you go upstairs and get some rest? You might remember more stuff after regaining your energy." Rhyme nodded and took her way up the ladder. Wasabi strode up to her side. "Hey, I want you to watch over Rhyme, in case something happens. If it does, then come and tell me, okay?"

Wasabi chirped in agreement before following Rhyme up the ladder.

"Shirma, did you figure out what was wrong with Rhyme?" Kairi asked when both girl and chocobo were out of earshot. Shirma took a seat beside her.

"Nothing's wrong with Rhyme." She started. Everyone in the room sighed. "It's her memories, they're going haywire. One moment, she remembers who everyone is, the next, she's completely blank. I still don't know what sets it off; at times she forgets at random. Like tonight…" Shirma trailed off her sentence and looked to the ground, thinking of what had just happened.

"Tonight, you say?" Joshua asked. "What was going on when she forgot?"

Shirma nodded. "She began recalling who everyone was when she spotted a squirrel in the tree. Do you guys know anything about it?"

This time, Beat spoke up. "My fee for the Game was her memories a' me an' we still don't know what hers was. When Rhyme…when she was turned into a' pin, King a' Coffee gave it to me. He told me I could summon it, but I didn't know how, so that's when I thunk that I gotta to ask the Reapers. When she came out, yo, she was this squirrel thing."

"That might have explained what happened to her tonight…" Neku told himself quietly. There was a humming in the absolute back of his mind, but he was able to get over it by now.

**

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//~*~\\

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**

"Y-you're Shiki, right?"

"Rhyme? Are you okay? I'm Eri, Shiki's friend." Eri told the younger Bito. She looked at her innocently, something she heard the other group lightly conversing about. Something was wrong with her, although they didn't know what. "Why did you think I was Shiki?"

Rhyme took a seat beside Eri. "About a month ago, remember when Shiki died?" Eri winced from the question but nodded. "Well, we technically weren't _dead_, I guess we just weren't living. We were playing a week long Game called the Reaper's Game."

"Oh, I've heard of that. It like, determines the worth of a person, right?"

"Yeah, you are." Rhyme looked up, almost feeling nostalgic. "Well, me, Beat, Shiki and Neku were all in the Reaper's Game. Shiki looked like you."

Eri drew back from the last statement. Why would her best friend look like her? "Can you tell me more?"

Rhyme agreed with a smile. As she continued to explain more of the Reaper's Game and the four days she was there, little did they know that the whining in Neku's head became more noticeable.

**

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chapter six  


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.:contemplation:.****  


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//closed\\

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Awwwh, gawd, this chapter sucked. You know it. Haha, I know I promised faster updates since it was summer, but since there's only a month left, I prolly only got enough time for one more update before school starts again. But don't fret! School's my inspiration, so that's gewd.

**EVERYONE MARK THIS DATE: AUGUST 13 (8/13)**  
It's AkuRoku day!!!

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.:amaya out:.

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	7. Search and Destroy

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The World Ends With You, Too

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Kairi gave Sora the letter and he read aloud "Traverse Town is being protected by a new group of kids. I'd like you to visit them, for their world was lost too. Oh, and Sora, there's this Sakuraba kid. I want you to take special care of him."

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Amaya's Note:

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I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews first of all! Whenever I see a review added, you seriously don't know what I'm gonna do. (Ex: squealing, jumping around and telling everyone around me that I got a review. Then I feel all giddy inside like the little schoolgirl I think I still am) Yup, you guys have absolutely no idea **:D**

Now, I'm gonna stop squabbling about stuff I (supposedly) don't do so that I can get typing.

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Disclaimer:

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Kingdom Hearts and The World Ends With You belong to Square Enix, Disney and Jupiter. I trust you know which is which. And thank you, for all of your KH info.

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//search and destroy\\

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**

"What are we gonna do about Ai then?" Shiki said quietly. The same group, minus Eri, Rhyme and Wasabi, were still sitting around the fireplace. "We can help her back, right?"

"I did." Riku told her. "But Ai is different. While I was still able to retain my human body in the darkness, Ai joined the Decoders, which most likely means she's a Nobody now."

"That's impossible!" Shiki interjected. She sat down as quickly as she stood up. "I-I'm sorry. But I made friends with her after the Game. Ai wouldn't go down that easily."

"There is a way, just maybe…" Sora said. His eyes glowed an irregular blue, signaling that this was Roxas talking. "While I was still in the…Organization, I overheard Xemnas saying that if both Heartless and Nobody were defeated, then the Somebody would reappear. It's a slim chance though; who knows what her Heartless is?" Roxas closed Sora's eyes, and he deeply breathed for a few seconds.

Instantly, Sora gasped. "Wait! We defeated both of Ansem's Heartless _and_ Nobody! Are you telling me that he's walking around again?" He asked in agonizing concern.

Sora phased a light blue again, calming down into an ethereal position. "Possibly, but that's not important right now."

Shiki leaned over to Kairi. "Is he fighting with himself?"

The Princess smiled and nodded. "It happens to me, too, except not as often as Sora." They both looked to the Keyblade Master phasing light blue, back to normal, and all over again. "You should see how often Roxas comes up. For some reason, he believes in taking over Sora whenever he has a test. Then he fills in all the answers before returning his body back to Sora."

"Lucky, I wish I could help myself cheat." Shiki joked.

"ANYWAYS, Roxas," Sora said loudly after regaining control of himself. "Bottom line is that Yen Sid wasn't at his Tower when we went there. What now?"

"We gotta find him, yo." Beat told him. "He might know what's up wid Rhyme."

"And the Decoders. Can't have my Proxy dying on me now, can I?" Joshua joked, an eminent smirk annoying the crap out of Neku. "Sora? Do you have any ideas to find him?"

Sora shook his head. "Not a clue. But we _might _have one more person to turn to, I mean, if he's there." He had obviously caught the attention of everyone in the room. "There's another magician in Radiant Garden. His name is Merlin and he lives where Leon and the other's work. Did you see him while you were talking to Cid?"

Shiki shook her head too. "If you're that unsure about him being in his own house, then no wonder why he wasn't there. But how are you so sure we'll be able to catch him to talk?"

The Keyblade Master laughed a bit. "Merlin had this uncanny sense to appear whenever I needed him. No doubt he still has it. We should take Rhyme to him tomorrow."

He was going to continue when Ashley's cell phone started to ring. She checked the caller ID before quickly wiping the surprise in her eyes. "Sorry, I gotta take this." She excused herself and started to talk to the caller once she was out of earshot.

"Well, we should call Leon so they know when we're coming." Sora suggested.

Riku smiled as if he knew what was going to be said. "On it." The silver-ette walked up to the screen and swiftly typed in the numbers to the Restoration Committee.

"_Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee! How may I help you?"_ A perky voice answered.

"_It's the _Radiant Garden_ Restoration Committee, Yuffie. Get it right or we won't let you pick it up next time. Who is it anyways?" _A more gruff person said.

The silver-ette smiled again as he recognized the banter between Yuffie and either Leon or Cid. But determining by the man's vocabulary, it was Leon. "Hey there, Yuffie." Riku greeted, amuse in his hello.

The ninja's eyes widened at the mention. _"Who—Riku!!!"_ She squealed. _"Leon! It's Riku and Sora and Kairi and…and everybody!!! Hold on a sec, Riku."_ Yuffie left the radius of the screen and could be heard scurrying around the building. Soon enough, she returned with Leon, Tifa, Aerith and a familiar blue alien named Stitch. _"See? I was right, Leon! I told you they'd be calling soon!"_

The gunblade wielder chuckled. _"Of course they would. Just like you said they would call just five minutes ago."_ Leon told her. He then diverted his attention to the screen. _"How's it going, Riku?"_

"The same, you know, running around all the worlds. But why do you have Stitch with you? Wasn't he supposed to be returned to his home planet?"

"_About that…"_ Aerith calmly answered. She stepped to the side so that Riku could see Cid watching over a girl with slick black hair. _"Stitch's home planet was destroyed and he managed to escape here with his friend Lilo. Lilo? Would you like to say hi?"_

Lilo smiled exuberantly. _"Would I? Of course I would!"_ The girl scurried up to the screen and peered curiously at the keyboard with Cid following closely behind her. _"Wow! I've never seen this one before! What's this button do?" _As Lilo's finger approached the said button, Cid facial expression had only one obvious phrase to it.

"_No! Kid, don't touch th—"_ Before the technician could finish his sentence, the screen feed flickered off.

"I'm guessing that was the off button?" Ashley asked in the sheer silence as she returned to the room and resumed her seat beside Joshua. "And the name Lilo? The girl's probably from Hawaii, another area from where I'm from."

After another moment of sitting in silence, the signal showed Cid and the others again. _"Sorry 'bout that. Kid's harder to watch over than she looks."_ He couldn't help but grin when he heard Tifa struggling with Lilo in the distance. _"More people are comin' into your place too, right, Kairi? Kid wants to know if you've seen any weird looking husbands or wives lately."_

Kairi cocked her head. "Weird as in how?"

Suddenly, Lilo jumped into view again. _"Well, my uncle's freakishly large and may look discolored. And my auntie too, the discolored part. Except she's really small, about your height, lady—"_ Lilo described, pointing to Kairi. _"—And she has only one eye. Chemical reactions. Other than that, they're pretty much normal. C'mon Stitch! I found another book you might wanna read!"_ Lilo called to the alien and he barked in approval (Sora knew Stitch wasn't a dog, but different worlds acted differently. He really didn't feel like going any deeper than that)

The Princess warmly beamed. "We haven't seen her uncle or auntie, but when they come, tell Lilo that she'll be the first to know, okay?"

"_Got it."_ Cid nodded. _"You guys must've called for some other reason than ta see us squirming 'round with her. What now?"_

Sora stood up. "First of all, let me introduce you to Neku, Beat, Joshua, Shiki and Ashley. And Shirma too." He said, motioning to them respectively. "Beat's sister, Rhyme, has some problems that we thought Shirma could figure out, but she didn't get the entire deal. So we were wondering if we could go over there tomorrow to ask Merlin."

"_Didn't we say you were always welcome here, Sora?"_ Aerith happily told him. _"And any friend of Sora's a friend of mine, I'm Aerith. The one with Lilo right now is Tifa, Yuffie is the ninja and Leon was the one trying to argue with her earlier."_

"_Which is why you guys are coming here tomorrow!" _Yuffie joked, jumping into vision again. _"So get some sleep so that you won't be tired here!"_

"_Don't worry, we'll tell Merlin you're coming." _Leon assured.

"_Oh, my dear boy, that won't be necessary."_ An aged (and not to mention how much it trembled) voice said. In a silver poof of red and blue sparkles, a wizard with a long blue robe with a hat to match appeared. He scratched his gray beard in thought. _"Did you not say it yourself, Sora? I have an uncanny sense to appear whenever you need me. Get some sleep tonight like Yuffie had said, I have a feeling tomorrow _may_ be as tiring as she implied."_

"Right, got it." Sora nodded before cutting off the signal. Then he turned to the room and fought off a yawn. "Well, you heard 'em! Get some sleep! One more thing, what was that call about, Ashley?"

The Composer nodded. "It was the Angel Committee, the one Mr. H is part of. They just called saying that we needed to get to their headquarters. All the Composers were called over."

"Right now?" Joshua asked.

"Yeah, as soon as possible. They sounded urgent for some reason."

"Well, you can't leave now!" Neku had blurted out. Everyone instantly shot his or her heads to him. "I mean, you've been going on like hell about me being the Director and you still haven't told me anything about it. You can't just leave me hanging on stuff like this."

Ashley took a glance at Joshua before nodding. "We'll leave after I explain tomorrow morning, then."

**

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//~*~\\

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**

Green sighed. Did White really have to be that harsh when calling her back? The conversation she had with her leader back at the Tower still played back in her head. And every time, it seemed to only get more intimidating in her mind.

"_Green, is Sakuraba still breathing?"_

"_Yes! I'm not _that_ stupid, sheesh."_

"_How dare you say that to your leader!"_

"_Fine, sorry."_

"_Good. Now come back here immediately."_

"_Now? Do I have to?"_

"_First you insult me, now you defy me! You are lucky you are still alive yourself, Green!"_

"_Yeah, what_ev,_ bye."_

The Decoder sighed again, but in more grief. In truth, she'd only talked to Code White for less than a minute, and she'd gotten White really aggravated. She arrived at the silhouetted building the Decoders called home. It was devoid of windows or doors; she'd have to use the dark corridors to get inside. There was no venting, nor rooms. In fact, their HQ homed no details at all. It was a simple, closed off box that allowed only the corridors of the Decoders to pass. Even their own rooms were boxed off. The HQ stayed true to no doors. Green subsided to the sensation of stepping into the corridor.

"Look who decided to show up?" A voice said.

Green's vision began to adjust to the eerie blue light radiating from the center of the room. All of the Decoders were seated around the light. She shot a look to the Decoder who had just spoken. "Shut it, Purple. At least _I_ don't have to cart a book around with me all day."

Purple furrowed her eyebrows and was about to retort when their leader, White, verbalized. "Code Red is the best of all four of you, but unfortunately, his condition requires Purple to be his escort." Behind White's back, Green could see Purple sticking her tongue out at her. Green was going to follow in the same fashion when another Decoder had phased into the room.

"Sorry I'm late, plenty of stuff I had to tend to." He said.

White nodded. "See, Green? Code Orange had the courtesy to apologize for his tardiness."

Green looked over to Code Orange, the newest Decoder to arrive in the room, to see him talking to himself again. "Let me see how much courtesy he's got when you begin talking, White."

The Leader scoffed before swiping her hand over the projector that radiated the blue light. It fizzed for a second before creating a holographic image of Neku and his current actions. "Good, he is not dead." White mused. "Green, I need you to lay off of Sakuraba for a while."

Code Red fluttered. See, Red was almost as diabolical as White and he probably would've already had control of the world if he hadn't had his powers sealed. When that happened, he'd been turned into a book. Yes, a book. There was nothing Code Red could do alone except maybe give someone the paper cut of doom. So he formed an alliance with Purple before they both joined the Decoders.

Code Orange was kind of like the Vexen of the Decoders; he was the one who performed all of the experiments. Unfortunately, Orange was a little kooky to begin with. He'd often doze off in conversation with an entity he'd only told White.

And then there was Code Green herself. Together, the Decoder hierarchy was formed with White on top, then Red, Green, Purple and Orange on the bottom. They'd been formed for 'something greater than themselves' as White would say. In fact, none of the members actually knew White's true motives.

But back to Code Red fluttering his aging book pages. "You don't trust her anymore, do you, White?" The book cackled.

"No, not that at all. Green is actually my most trustworthy Code here. It is just that she needs to learn how to control her temper more often than she is right now. But where our Director is going right now is crucial."

"What about the Composers?" Code Orange asked.

White laughed quietly in content. "Yes, Kiryu and Secaria. The Angel Committee had just called them, correct?"

"Yeah," Purple assured. "I was there watching it."

A stern growl could be heard from White. "You could have been caught!" She firmly scolded.

"Relax, I wasn't." The Code said passively, beginning to toy with Red's binding. "But do you mind telling me what's up with Rhyme?"

"The Reaper's Game is what's up, I bet." Code Orange told Purple with a few twitches. "I'm right, right, White?"

"Yes, you are, Orange. However, the reason as to why is still a mystery, even to me. That is why I forbid all of you to interfere with their visit to Radiant Garden." Green sunk lower into her chair. White noticed and turned her attention to the Code. "Green? Are you well?"

"…Yeah…"

"I'm surprised. The kid hasn't said anything for a while." Code Red taunted. The dog-eared corners of his pages formed an evil smile. "White, when is the next Decoder appearance?"

Code White tapped her fingers on the holographic table. "Impatience will be your undoing one day, Red. Sakuraba's entourage will encounter one of us soon enough."

**

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//~*~\\

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**

Neku woke up the next morning to find Sora in the kitchen with Kairi. They seemed to be the only other two awake right now. "Sora, are you sure you can trust them?" He heard Kairi's voice ask.

"They haven't given me a reason _not _to, Kai. Why, have you found one?" Sora comforted the Princess.

"Well, no, but they're complete strangers!" She retorted. Neku decided to not climb down the ladder and just listen into their conversation. "I'm tired of acting around these people I barely know!"

"Kairi, you should know by now that you've practically been trusting strangers for the past two years. Did you know Pluto when you stepped into the dark corridor with him?"

"Pluto who?" Kairi asked with wholesome curiosity. Sora must've raised an eyebrow at her and waited for it to click in her mind because he didn't say anything. "Ohh, the dog?"

"Yes, Kairi, the dog." Sora told her. By the clanking they were making, Neku assumed that they were washing the dishes from last night. "Now do you see my point? You didn't even know Pluto's name and he still saved your life."

"Saved my—what?" Kairi panicked.

"Remember the red head with the marks under his eyes. Axel. He was most likely going to torture you to lure me and get Roxas back." Sora told her.

"Sora, that doesn't count. It was either Pluto or Axel. Even if the dog weren't there, I would've run into the corridor anyways. Axel was just being straight up creepy by talking about how we were the same. There was no way I would trust my life in the hands of him." Kairi retorted.

"And yet, he was the one who helped me get to you." Silence. Kairi didn't answer Sora; he had a good point in that. "If that's not trusting, Kairi, then tell me what is." There was another ghostly period of silence between the two. "If you can't, I'll go wake everyone up so that we can get going."

Neku's instinct told him to run to avoid being caught, but his conscience told him to stay. Damn, he hated getting caught between himself. "Someone's up early." A detached voice asked. Neku gasped before turning around to see Riku leaning against the wall. He was in his usual demeanor, eyes shut and arms crossed. Riku sighed before hanging his legs down the ladder hole*****. "Kairi's been really irritable ever since last night. Sora couldn't get any sleep with her complaining in the room next door."

"Next door?" Neku asked, still feeling an awkward rift between him and Riku. "How are Eri and Shiki?"

"Still haven't noticed? You, Joshua and Beat were in the same room, Shirma, Ashley and Rhyme in another, I bunked with Sora, and Kairi was in the fourth. By then, Eri and Shiki went off to stay with Donald's nephews."

"How far is that?"

"Not much, just go down the stairs right outside the shop." Riku started to go down the ladder, but stopped about three rungs down. "I could go get them, if you want."

Neku nodded before the silverette slid down. He sighed and leaned against the wall. "Too much in one day!" He groaned to himself.

"Hey, you okay?" Another voice asked.

"I'm starting to detect a pattern." Neku said. He opened his eyes to see Sora climbing up the ladder and taking a seat next to him. "Good morning, Sora."

"Same to you." Sora moaned, lying back on his forearms. "You heard what Kairi's been saying, didn't you?"

The same discomfited gap Neku felt will Riku suddenly appeared with Sora. "Yeah, sorry if I wasn't supposed to."

"Don't sweat it. She's been really easy to tick off, and I don't really know why." Sora groaned. He turned onto his stomach and seemed to lie there for a few seconds thinking. And without being subtle about it, the Keyblader shot up. "Well, can't dwell on that for too long! Wake up Beat and Josh. Shirma's gonna be up soon so don't worry about her." Sora pat Neku's shoulder before going back down the ladder, and he poked his head downward to watch him. Kairi met Sora at the bottom and they had another quick conversation before she gazed upward to Neku. He recoiled from her expression; nearly pure malice tainted her face.

Neku stood up. Waking Beat up definitely wasn't going to be easy.

**

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//~*~\\

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**

"Josh, you awake yet?" Neku asked, knocking on the Composer's door.

"I have Neku waking me up?" The Proxy heard him bitter-sweetly say. Joshua soon after opened up the door. "Have you checked up on Ashley yet? She said that we would have to leave soon."

"About that…" He answered. Suddenly, Neku felt like he was in a bad cliché of the incident with Kairi not too long ago. Beat had already left the room and was having breakfast downstairs. "How are you so sure you can trust her?"

Joshua shrugged, confirming Neku's fear of once again, not getting a straight answer. "She just came up to me one day and told me stuff I didn't know. I may not be the best Composer, so that's why I trust her, to learn as much as I can."

Neku sighed. "And if she's scamming you?"

"Possibly what could Ashley gain from it?" Joshua smirked, knowing he'd choked Neku out of every potential answer. "If she's not with Shirma in her room, she should be downstairs as well."

"Downstairs?" Ashley chirped. She tossed a pin into Neku's hand. "That's what Directors use."

Neku looked down to it. It was blank, like the Fusion pin before it was activated, but it had a different, more distinct tint to it. "How am I supposed to use it?"

Ashley shrugged passively like Joshua. "You'll just know."

"Wait," He interjected before the Composer could continue. "Everyone in Shibuya already knew about the Reaper's Game _before_ they actually went into it. (_ex: Shiki knowing about it Day 1, Week 1)_ What's the point of the Director then?"

"That's the thing." She answered. "People knew about it when the Angel Community regulated it to be illegal. But they let it slide when no prominent threat was posed. At least…until now. You're the very first Director, Neku. The only thing we know about the Director is that if he doesn't do his job, a lot of people will be erased. I'm as new to this as you are."

"And the pin will just tell me when to erase someone's mind?" Neku asked. Ashley nodded. "But it's a pin. Don't I need a partner to use it?"

"A partner? What's that?" The trio turned to see Shirma coming up the ladder and approaching them. Ashley signaled to Neku to explain.

"In the Reaper's Game, the only way we could survive the Noise is to beat the crap outta them with a partner, because they existed in two zones. The zones are too complicated to explain right now. And with a partner, we used pins to attack the noise. But they'd only work with a partner. So this is where the trouble comes in, I need to be dead to have a partner."

"Dead?" Shirma croaked. She turned away from the group for a while to think to her. "What if I'd be your partner?"

"Impossible." Joshua told her. "You'd need to be dead for the Reaper's Game, and frankly, no Composers are in their position to host a Game right now."

Shirma seemed ready to get down on her knees to beg. "Please, Composers, I need to go. I might be able to understand what's happening to Rhyme if I go through the Reaper's Game myself."

The Chocobo trainer struck a nerve in both Composers, but they still had to think it over. Ashley glanced over to Joshua. "We could _try_ and create an artificial Game at the HQ." Ashley suggested. "That way, Neku can get a partner to use the pin and Shirma can understand what the Reaper's Game is."

"With all the Composers there, how are we sure the different rules won't interfere with each other?" Joshua asked.

"Neku's from your district, isn't he?" Ashley inquired. Both Composer and Proxy nodded. "Then the Game will be under your control." He nodded. "Well, Neku, tell Sora we'll see him later then."

Neku silently agreed before Joshua touched the doorknob. Using his other hand, the Composer dialed a few numbers on his (magical) cell phone. The outline of the entrance glowed a surreal white before he opened it. "I don't know when we'll be back, so keep your phone on and with you all the time. I never know when we might need to call you."

Before the Proxy knew it, the Composers had left his sight.

**

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//~*~\\

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**

The ride to Radiant Garden was awkward. As Kairi informed Sora of all precautions, she continued to scare Neku with scowls and glowers. In the background, Neku could see that Eri and Shiki cowered in the same fear he was. She bitter-sweetly delivered the safety measurements, but malice was evident when Neku looked into her eyes. They weren't the same alluring mauve eyes he'd seen a few days earlier; they'd morphed into a nearly emotionless muddy violet-blue.

Simultaneously, Neku concluded, as Kairi had gone on a rampage, Sora had become more depressed in a way. Ever since the talk this morning, Sora had been mumbling something about _'not being herself'_ or _'not liking her purpose.'_ The 'her' Sora was referring to must've been Kairi, because obviously, she _wasn't_ herself, and she really didn't seem like she enjoyed hanging out with Eri and Shiki. Sora had eventually given up his pep all in that day and was overall gloomy.

Wasabi came up to Neku's knee and nudged it. He smiled down to the Chocobo and it happily chirped back. In the distance, Neku could see a world growing larger in size. He looked back to Beat and Rhyme behind him dozing off. He chuckled silently to himself as Wasabi jumped up onto his lap. It was the first time Neku had noticed the brown messenger pouch the Chocobo was carrying. He lifted the flap to discover an aged book. It was old fashioned, with a burgundy spine. It held no title, but was signed by _Superior._ Neku raised an eyebrow before unfastening the lock on the book.

"NEKU!" Neku shot his head up only to see that he was being sucked into the book with Wasabi. He spotted Sora, Riku, Beat and Rhyme crowding around the frazzled pages before the scenery completely changed to orange skies looking down to the clock tower he was standing on. Wasabi was shrilling quietly next to him.

There was a girl clad in the same Decoder coat as Code Green was. She was either a Decoder or an Organization member. She had short raven black hair that was styled to end just at the back of her neck. She heard Neku approaching and swiveled her head to him. The girl had azure eyes, eyes that boldly reminded him of…Sora.

"Neku?" She questioned in a panic. "Wha—How did you get in here?" The girl glanced to his foot and saw Wasabi baring his teeth at her. An expression of realization swept onto her face.

"Who are you, how do you know my name and where am I?" Neku demanded.

The girl looked over to Neku as she stood up from the edge of the clock tower. "You still don't know much, do you?" She mused. The girl ran full speed to Neku, giving him only a split second to acknowledge what was happening. Immediately, the girl kicked Neku's gut, sending him with a blast back to the outside world. Wasabi came after him, sticking the landing.

There was a sharp gasp before Neku was pulled back up to his feet. "Are you Neku?" A perky girl asked him. He looked up to see Yuffie helping him. Neku nodded. "Oh! Good, we need to get to the Bailey right away!!! Sora and the others are already there! C'mon!"

Yuffie briskly grasped Neku's wrist before leading him outside. She released him, allowing him to follow closely behind. "You're in Radiant Garden!" She called back to him, informing Neku of what went on while he was in the book. "Sora landed here just a few minutes ago, leaving the book with us. He said you were inside, and then he ran off. There's an ambush!"

Neku quickened his pace to keep up with Yuffie, who had started to hop from rooftop to rooftop. "How am I supposed to fight?" He yelled to her.

Another form swiftly joined Yuffie amongst the run. She had black hair, too, and a flowing black cape behind her. She shot a smile to Neku before tossing him the laser gun from the wrecked _Highwind_. This was Tifa. "They said you'd be familiar with it!" She called out to him. Tifa jumped down to his side as they approached a wall. She nodded to him before catapulting Neku up the bricks. Yuffie stood with a tall, brown haired man that wielded a gunblade up there.

"Leon." He introduced himself. "Sora's just past the wall."

Leon motioned to the gate, where Nobodies were swarming. Instantly, Beat (covering Rhyme), Riku and Sora came retreating back. Sora was panting heavily with the color drained out of his face when he arrived to talk to Leon. When he looked up, fear tainted his already glum face. "What's Xigbar doing here?"

**

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chapter seven

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.:search and destroy:.

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****//closed\\

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This was easily the longest chapter I've ever written. EVER. Size 10, font Verdana, ELEVEN PAGES. Screw my want to leave you guys on a cliffhanger, that's why this chapter's so abnormally long.

I wonder if you know who that girl from the book was? (knowing your guys' identification skills, you probably know who)

I don't think I needed to put that Decoder part in this chapter. But I wanted too! It was fun! But Code White doesn't use any contractions (combining two words, it + is= it's), so I kept messing up on that part. HAHA, Code Red's a book. If you've done your research on Shirma and Chocobo Tales, I think you'll know what I'm talking about.

***In the Accessory Shop in KH1, the ladder led to the Moogle shop upstairs. In here, it leads to the bedrooms of all the people. Hooray for non-canon! **

And I LOVE writing as Lilo, only 'cause I talk like that in real life. LOL.

Author's notes like these are useless.

Anyways, review please. And…

**I HERD YOU LIEK MUDKIPZ.**

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.:amaya out:.

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